The Belt of Venus

[Rick]

Have you noticed the pink glow along the horizon at sunset and sunrise lately?

It is known as the Belt of Venus. It is created by the sun shining through the dense atmosphere near the earth's surface and being reflected off the atmosphere in the other side.

It is more pronounced at sunset, but still incredible in the morning.

If you have a good view of the horizon to the east in the evening, as the sun sets, you'll see a grey band form under the pink. The grey is the earth's shadow

One sight I read said that it is more of a winter phenomenon.

Here's a picture from the internet.

I'm going to try to get some pictures with my drone one of these evenings.

[Shotgun Jeremy]

That's pretty cool

[Rick]

Well hell. Thursday evening, the view was looking good, so I put the drone up to try to get a few pictures. Raised it straight up to about 50' when all the motors shut off and it plummeted back to earth. Ended up with a broken camera and gimble.

It still flies, but there's obviously, no video and there is no telemetry being sent to the screen so I'm sure something else is broken.

O could probably get the parts from EBay and Amazon, but I've had it since 2015 and the company no longer supports it. I've been experiencing some sketchy flights lately, not getting the same distance, 300- 400 yards or so with video and connection issues, so it's time for a new one.

I'm about to order a DJI Mini 2. https://www.dji.com/mobile/mini-2

4K 30 fps video with zoom.

I watched a video of someone who flew it on a three mile distance test. I'd never have the nerve to do that.

My son did that with his $2,000 dollar drone and almost lost it when it didn't have enough battery to return all the way home. He was able to find it...lol

[kantwin]

I heard Skydio makes a really good drone, too.

[Rick]

That looks sharp, but more than I want to pay.

[Ludwig]

I'm guessing that the problem was with the battery. My iPad has a battery problem that causes me to believe that. The battery charges to "100 %" and when I'm in the middle of a project, not ten minutes later, I lose all power and I have to recharge and reboot. Unfortunately, such a recovery is not available for a drone . When you get your new one, I would suggest that you replace the battery more often.

[Rick]

That's my guess too. When a battery is low while flying, , it returns to home. If it's low on takeoff, it immediately goes into the return home sequence.

I have flown test flights with the same battery and it does seem fine.

New drone will be here Thursday.

[Rick]

My drone made it to Fort Worth yesterday and is stranded there due to weather...lol

That's okay, I probably wouldn't have flown it today anyway.

Here is what the DFW roads looked like this morning according to the Google.

[sickofpc]

Rick, kind of always wanted a drone. What would a cheap drone, with camera, to begin with cost?..Do you know a couple of beginner's drones, inexpensive, that I might be interested in?..Had a friend that used to have a RC plane...loved watching him fly it...

[Rick]

I've only owned one, a DJI Phantom 3 standard that I bought from Sam's on sale for around $500. It was decent, flew good, was a bit cumbersome to start up. Had to connect the phone or tablet to the controllers network, then the drone to the controller, then calibrate it and all.

With my limited experience, I can't honestly recommend one over others.

These don't seem to be too bad, but the 2k video is a bit low.

https://exodrones.com/

DJI also has a Mini SE that looks like a good price.

https://www.dji.com/mobile/mini-se?f...e-product-page