Oracle is the name of a model rocket

Model rocket

A model rocket is a small rocket that is commonly advertised as being able to be launched by anybody, to, in general, low altitudes and recovered by a variety of means....

 with built-in digital camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

, manufactured by Estes Industries

Estes Industries

Estes Industries is a company based in Penrose, Colorado, USA that designs and builds model rocket and model aircraft engines and kits. They were the best known model rocket company during the "golden age of rocketry" in the 1970s and early 1980s, competing primarily with Centuri Engineering and a...

, for aerial photography

Aerial photography

Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...

. In contrast to the camera rocket Astrocam

Astrocam

The Astrocam is a model rocket with a built-in camera for taking aerial photographs.The Astrocam comes from the American manufacturer Estes and it can be flown by B6-4-and C6-7-propellants. The Astrocam was available as kit or as ready-to-fly model. The camera used 110 film and was mounted in the...

, the Oracle allows the making of a complete film of a rocket flight. The Oracle is best flown with a D12 engine (see Estes number coding), but can be flown with C11 engines.

During launch, the camera films downward; showing the launch pad and engine exhaust during ascent. The rocket's nose cone may be attached to the parachute in two ways; there are attachments on both ends of the nose cone. Attaching the parachute to the bottom films the parachute during descent. Attaching the parachute to the top films the approach of the ground during descent.

The nose-cone attaches to a PC

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

 via USB. The resulting AVI

Audio Video Interleave

Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...

 file contains approximately 30 (between 30 and 35) seconds of uncompressed video at 9 frame/s at a resolution

Image resolution

Image resolution is an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail....

 of 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high (320x240). The data rate is 2047 kbit/s. The camera holds only one video at a time.

External links

Example of a oracle rocket flight on YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

Estes Oracle Flight