Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Hot Air Balloons

Hot air balloons are incredible machines that capture a tremendous amount of energy into one big bubble. The balloons use propane to heat the air over 200 degrees before blowing it into the balloon. With a capacity of 7-10 million btu's, the burners are 30-40 times the capacity of a typical home furnace. These images from last weekends balloon festival show the visible light image alongside an image taken with a thermal camera.
note: the green-yellow blobs below the balloons are people.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Paul R Tregurtha departed Duluth 9/21/2014

After an eventful Saturday afternoon, the 1000 Ft Paul R Tregurtha departed Duluth at 00:20 Sunday morning.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

1000 Ft Paul R Tregurtha grounding

While there is speculation why the 1000 ft Paul R Tregurtha headed off course and went aground in front of Bayfront Park in Duluth this afternoon, there will be a full investigation over the next weeks.
The Tregurtha was pulled free by tugs after several hours sitting in the muck.

In the following video, you can see the Tregurtha start to make it's final turn towards the bridge, but then you hear the emergency horn prior to seeing the boat stop.