Oracle Omega
 

Every since I purchased my first Oracle camera set last year, I keep trying different boosters for the camera.

I modified a Semroc Goliath model to use as a 'schoolyard' booster when flown with C11 motors.

I wanted to fly a two stage booster with the camera. It only seemed proper to fly it with the 'classic' booster, an Estes Omega.

Thanks to a Blast From The Past Omega II kit and Phred at Excelsior Rocketry, I have my two stage booster.

The finishing scheme reflects both the classic Omega and the current Oracle booster.

First flight is planned for NARAM-48. I'll be flying my entire Oracle 'family' at the launch.

Bob

I like EVERYTHING about the looks of your Omega II with the Oracle on top :cool:
That is clean and it looks great in red. Estes should take some ideas from your project and offer an optional two-stage vehicle for the Oracle for larger fields and higher altitude flights.

Gathering dust in a rocketry related hobby shop nearby is a Oracle. This is from much later than my original model rocket days (still film, then....) but before I became a BAR. Is there any redeeming value in this product?

Ehhh.. if you can get a smoking deal on it, and if there is a way to easily retrofit a more capable camera in the shell, maybe.

Expensive, low quality video seemed to be the big points against it.

kj

IIRC, there were substantial usability issues with it. Something along the lines of if you turn it off or if the battery is drained before you download the video, it was lost.


Bill

Plus you have to have software to download the video, and it isn't supported anymore... the camera had only an incredibly small amount (about 90 seconds or so IIRC) of on-board memory, and it's volatile memory, so if the thing has a hard landing and the battery loses contact for a moment or you accidentally switch it off, the video is erased. The video was very low quality as well, no sound, with a pretty low frame rate IIRC... Ok here's a link that should help... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_(rocket)

There are MUCH better products on the market now, but the Oracle was the first "mass produced" digicam put on the market, so there's some historical value in that, I suppose. Estes replaced it with very limited digital camera product called the Astrovision which was basically an equivalent product.

The most popular digital microcams in use now are the "keyfob" cams available from bayourat rocketry or from various vendors on Ebay, or the fancier DVR "lipstick cams" available from Art Upton at Boostervision.com.

Later! OL JR :)