A TEENAGER from a Winchester college has won an award for his stunning pictures of the earth’s stratosphere and the city from 100,000 feet after he sent a weather balloon to the edge of space for an extra-curricular project.

Julian Ellis-Brown, 18, of Abbots Worthy, won a prize from Peter Symonds College for his Extended Project researching weather conditions in the skies and beyond.

He used software designed by Cambridge academics to predict the balloon’s path in fluctuating weather before launching it in Dorset.

The balloon touched the outer atmosphere at 100,000 feet, travelling almost 200 miles, recording weather conditions and taking photos along the way.

The physics student programmed a mobile SIM card attached to the device to text coordinates of the balloon’s location, allowing him to dash across the country to retrieve the balloon from a tree near Edenbridge, Kent, where it landed two-and-a-half hours after launch.

He said: “I was building a project on a budget. There were so many hindrances I went through in the process, but I’m very, very pleased that I managed to overcome all of them and win an award.”

The Extended Project Qualification is an optional independent research project taken alongside A-levels, preparing students for university by giving them free reign over their subject and weekly meetings with tutors to discuss progress.

Julian’s supervisor, David Francis, said: “Julian impressed both myself and all his peers by his remarkable success.

“The project required a high degree of planning and ability to respond to setbacks in a major way. The benefit of these projects is that students can choose any topic they like.

“In this case at least, the sky’s the limit.”