Tracking Powder: Best color choice?

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mrichhcirm

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Hey all,
I need some extra help tracking my smaller birds. My plan is to put some powdered carpenter's chalk on top of the wadding. what colors work best:

Blue? I happen to have some around the house, but maybe not very visible in a blue sky?
Red? Seems highly visible but not sure if I want my white/yellow/blue/black rockets covered in it.
Yellow? Matches some of my rockets..is it still pretty visible in the air?
White? Can it be seen worth a darn on an overcast day?
Fluorescent orange or green?
Black?

See the game here? Want it to be useful for tracking without staining my rockets too much. Opinions/experience welcome. Thanks
 
I'm thinking it can vary based on ambient light conditions.

In terms of a single color (or wavelength), the eye is most sensitive around 550 (ish) nanometers.

However, yellow activates all the cones in the eye the most (which is why some would say this is the most visible color, and why you see a lot of fluorescent yellow/green/chartreuse safety gear). Excerpt: "As mentioned above, fluorescent yellow-green is the best choice during the day—and best all-around choice for a single color. But as dusk sets in and lighting gets dim, orange-red and red start to become more prominent. (It has to do with the fact that your eyeballs rely on both rods and cones to see colors, that it uses them in different combinations depending on ambient light levels, and that rods and cones are more sensitive to different wavelengths of light." [1]

In terms of contrast, black would contrast most with a light sky.

Just guesses on my part.

[1] - https://equipped.outdoors.org/2010/06/brightest-most-visible-safety-colors.html
 
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I don't know. Did you ever read The Cat in the Hat Comes Back? I end up like that, with red every where, and I mean everywhere.

Don

:D Actually I might have a solution. Once, I stained a white carpet with blue chalk. The fix was a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and warm water...The vinegar is a mild acid which dissolves the chalk. Hopefully it will work as well with red dye as with blue.
 
For tracking powder, you want a color that has the most contrast with the background (sky or clouds). Black ,Flourescent red or orange. Green and yellow doesn't contrast enough with the sky.
Chalk like pigment is heavy; another option would be tempra paint pigment in powdered form, but it is pricey.

As for clean up, or better yet prevention so you don't have to clean it up, I have put the tracking powder in a single sheet of a paper towel and then gather up the 4 corners of the paper towel and put a slight twist together of the ends (corners). insert the parachute / recovery stuff into rocket, then the last thing to insert into the rocket would be this tracking powder "package".
When the ejection charge goes off, the powder "package" comes out as one piece but will open up once it's clear of the rocket.
 
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It really depends on conditions, as we learned in spades at the recent NARAM with many many "track lost" flights. In the predominately overcast conditions we were flying in soon most everyone settled on black (most of us were using chalk line chalk from a nearby Lowe's). It worked much better than the red tempera powder I had for this purpose and which I had tested in clear skies to good effect.

It IS messy - and my winning B-cluster altitude model (which is painted flourescent yellow, which did NOT help track it) has lots of black on it that did not just wipe off. Packaging it in a wadding packet didn't seem to help keep things clean so after the first couple of attempts I just put a square of wadding in above the 'chute/streamer and poured the powder in.
 
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In the predominately overcast conditions we were flying in soon most everyone settled on black (most of us were using chalk line chalk from a nearby Lowe's). It worked much better than the red tempera powder I had for this purpose and which I had tested in clear skies to good effect.

What he said... he has practical experience.
 
Thanks all! I'll get myself some red and black chalk. That ought to cover all forseeable situations.
 
Use regular baby powder carpenters chauld is very messy

+1 to this... chalk is VERY messy, and not all that cheap, either...

Put a couple tablespoons or so of baby powder in the rocket, it'll be PLENTY visible... :) It cleans up easy and has a pleasant smell, too...

Chalk CAN 'stain' rockets pretty badly... some if it can be darn near impossible to get off... especially the cheaper types... and of course ground handling and getting it in/on your clothes, vehicle, other rockets, etc, is also an issue...

Best of luck! OL JR :)
 
As a former professional kite flier (yes, I got paid to fly kites) I'll tell you that yellow sucks by itself and red ROCKS! Red stands out against clouds, haze, and the blue of the sky, but yellow can be easily lost.
 
Isn't baby powder flammable?


CORNSTARCH powder is, (technically) but TALCUM powder is not...

Cornstarch is, of course, STARCH, which can burn (look up "cremora fireballs" for more information). When aerosolized, the potential exists for the particles to catch fire if exposed to an open flame, and once ignited, each particle burns in a tiny, hot flame, but due to the nearby presence of massive numbers of small flammable particles immersed in a combustion-supporting gas (atmospheric oxygen) they CAN ignite the particles nearest to them, forming a 'chain reaction', as each individual dust-size particle burns and ignites the one next to it, until they are all (mostly) consumed... (look up "grain dust explosions" for more information). Common cake flour is also flammable, but I've used it before with no problems... Heck I even used to put it under my launch pad's "flame tunnel" (home-made "NASA-like" launch pad) so the rocket motor would blow out a big cloud of "smoke" at liftoff-- it worked, but the risk of a dust "explosion" is NOT zero... SO OF COURSE I *DO NOT* RECOMMEND ANYONE TRY THAT.

If you want to make sure there's ZERO chance of a "dust explosion" or fireball, use TALCUM powder... talcum comes from talc, which, being a MINERAL, is NOT flammable... therefore no chance of ignition from the rocket motor or ejection charge, or any "hibachi effect" of flames from the remaining delay grain burning for a number of seconds after the ejection charge has fired...

Later! OL JR :)
 
Isn't baby powder flammable?

Only the cornstarch type baby powder is flammable. and YES Talc Baby powder is not only still available it's the MOST purchased. I use it to powder all types of Plastic, Mylar and PTFE (Teflon) chutes and Streamers in all my models.


Actually I mix my Tracking powders 50/50 with Talc Baby powder to make them lighter in mass without effecting the cloud. I use a number of different color Chalk-Line Chalks, and Dry Tempra Colors to make my tracking powders. a complete range from plain white Talc Baby powder, Blue, Fluor Orange and Red Chalks, Yellow, Red, and Black Tempra.

There is NO "BEST" color. The best color for the day will depend on the ambient sky conditions and cloud cover. My Range box has several colors in 2oz squeeze bottle to help fit whatever sky cover is encountered.
 
Cornstarch is, of course, STARCH, which can burn (look up "cremora fireballs" for more information)......

the risk of a dust "explosion" is NOT zero... SO OF COURSE I *DO NOT* RECOMMEND ANYONE TRY THAT.

I'll voice a complete agreement on that last sentence there. Just google 'grain elevator explosion' real quick and you'll get a handle on the potential for trouble with cornstarch in rockets.

-Hans
 
Chalk line chalk squeeze bottles are usually labeled with the staying ability of the chalk...
The scale is 0 thru 5...
With a Zero wiping off very easily and the snap line mark may not last the day,,,
all the way to Five which is labeled as permanent on anything it touches.....

All in all,,, I think this is a really good idea,,
I have thought about it much but am not convinced that you'd be able to see the "poof" from very far...

Can you see this past 2000 ft of so...

Teddy
 
Has anyone tried glitter? I bought some red glitter a while back but haven't had the chance to try it yet.
 
Chalk line chalk squeeze bottles are usually labeled with the staying ability of the chalk...
The scale is 0 thru 5...
With a Zero wiping off very easily and the snap line mark may not last the day,,,
all the way to Five which is labeled as permanent on anything it touches.....

All in all,,, I think this is a really good idea,,
I have thought about it much but am not convinced that you'd be able to see the "poof" from very far...

Can you see this past 2000 ft of so...

Teddy

NARAM-48 had F altitude flights tracked to over 1800m. That's over a mile for your Imperial System users out there. If you use enough powder and disperse it well, yes, it is visible.

I personally tracked G Super-Roc altitude flights at NARAM-49 (my first NARAM). The highest flights were typically about 1/2 mile, and it was usually pretty easy to see the cloud.
 
NARAM-48 had F altitude flights tracked to over 1800m. That's over a mile for your Imperial System users out there. If you use enough powder and disperse it well, yes, it is visible.

I personally tracked G Super-Roc altitude flights at NARAM-49 (my first NARAM). The highest flights were typically about 1/2 mile, and it was usually pretty easy to see the cloud.

My goals are less ambitious. I just want my models back...I fly rockets like I play golf: A successful day means I didn't lose any balls in the weeds, trees, or ponds.
 
I was going to say "black" just so you can see the look on the RSO's face when you say: "The top of my rocket is filled with black powder, so I can see it when the ejection charge goes off."

:p
 
I was going to say "black" just so you can see the look on the RSO's face when you say: "The top of my rocket is filled with black powder, so I can see it when the ejection charge goes off."

:p


Ha ha! That would be fun!
 
I've never tried this powder technique before, but I have a bottle of orange line chalk. How much do you use?
 
A big fireball would be visible!:wink:
I have some talc baby powder from Walmart.

Walmart, eh? What brand is it that's made from talc? I may take Micromeister's advice and cut the chalk powder with it.
I just checked our medicine cabinet: cornstarch.
 
Has anyone tried glitter? I bought some red glitter a while back but haven't had the chance to try it yet.

Yes, it works well: at least it did for model rockets. Red would work better than the color I had, Gold. But then again, what you really see is the sparkle versus the color.
 
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