[HN Gopher] History and use of the Estes AstroCam 110
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       History and use of the Estes AstroCam 110
        
       Author : mmmlinux
       Score  : 50 points
       Date   : 2025-11-04 21:41 UTC (11 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.dembrudders.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.dembrudders.com)
        
       | bediger4000 wrote:
       | I built and flew both Camroc and Astrocam. Did not get any
       | pictures with Camroc. I got a lot of pictures with Astrocam, a
       | good many of them blue sky.
       | 
       | I never got the full 110 cartridge full of pictures. As the
       | article implies, any model rocket flight had a decent probability
       | of either catastrophic failure, or being impossible to retrieve.
       | Get 6 or 7 flights on a cartridge, the temptation to develop it
       | was too much.
        
         | vertnerd wrote:
         | My Camroc produced exactly one usable photograph. It was hell
         | to load it with a single disk of unexposed film.
        
           | bediger4000 wrote:
           | You have my admiration! I remember it being completely
           | fiddly, both loading the film, and cocking the shutter, then
           | keeping it cocked.
        
       | buildbuildbuild wrote:
       | I loved my AstroCam as a kid. I think dad and I tried six
       | launches. When a photo finally came out it was the best day.
       | Thank you for sharing, a great reminder of how far we've come.
       | Also of how short attention span has eroded patience during many
       | of today's prescribed "STEM" activities.
        
       | EvanAnderson wrote:
       | My father had a 1970s Estes catalog that I adored as a kid. It
       | had the ultimate camera rocket that I wanted to fly: The Cineroc
       | (https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/rocket-flying-...)
       | 
       | In the late 90s I finally saw some model rocket-based videos,
       | made flying camcorders or TV transmitters on high power model
       | rockets.
       | 
       | Today drones have made DIY aerial photography much less
       | difficult, but I definitely wanted to fly cameras in my youth.
        
       | latchkey wrote:
       | I forgot all about this! Had one of these. Grew up in San Diego
       | near the beach.
       | 
       | First time launching it up, it caught a big breeze, drifted west,
       | never to be seen again.
        
       | ck2 wrote:
       | ha I vaguely remember that from the catalogs
       | 
       | But what I REALLY remember is learning that H class motors
       | existed and became obsessed with finding one but the internet
       | wasn't a thing yet so it was impossible
       | 
       | (several times more powerful than E class)
       | 
       | fun list:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_rocket_motor_classificat...
        
       | watersb wrote:
       | The first personal computer generally available in the United
       | States, the MITS Altair, grew out of projects like this.
       | 
       | MITS was an acronym: "Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry
       | Systems". Ed Roberts and Forrest Mims made electronics kits for
       | model rockets.
       | 
       | As a 1970s kid, I built Estes rockets, but I never did anything
       | fancy. You'd spend a week or two of free time, building the kit
       | and painting it. Then you'd blow it up on the launch pad, or
       | launch it into the wild blue and never see it again. Or spend all
       | your birthday money on a Star Wars X-Wing fighter, launch it, and
       | have it nose-dive into the dirt about ten feet away.
       | 
       | Come to think of it, model rocketry was exactly like real
       | rocketry.
       | 
       | Forrest Mims enriched my life in other ways, with his patient lab
       | manuals for the Radio Shack electronics kits.
        
       | joshvm wrote:
       | On film availability. It's relatively easy to slit film to width,
       | with little jigs that are machined or 3D printed. This is popular
       | for Minox "spy" cameras since new 8x11 reels are $20+ and you can
       | refill an old plastic cartridge if you're very careful. The stock
       | is about 8-9mm wide depending on the camera and so a 35mm roll
       | will yield 2 strips that can be cut to length.
       | 
       | Some enterprising person makes a machined an aluminium Minox film
       | cartridge, which is expensive, but solves the problem of the
       | originals being incredibly fragile. It doesn't take many retail
       | rolls to justify the cost though.
       | 
       | https://juliantanase.com/about-minox-film-cassettes-old-and-...
       | 
       | Here's a 110 slitter: insert
       | https://www.camerhack.it/product/110-film-cutter/
        
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       (page generated 2025-11-15 23:00 UTC)