The earth from above - on an amazing home-made camera - VIDEO

They were taken by an amateur using the most basic of equipment – a standard camera and some duct tape.

Robert Harrison, 38, used his ingenuity and a collection of cheap parts costing just 500 to take the spectacular shots using a Canon camera which he launched to 35km – more than 20 miles – above the planet's surface on a weather balloon.

The astounding views can usually only be seen from a rocket or a weather balloon because no aircraft can fly to that height.

The 38-year-old IT director has launched 12 high altitude balloons since taking up his hobby in October 2008 – and before that he says he had never even picked up so much as a soldering iron.

It all started when Mr Harrison, of Highburton, Huddersfield, tried to take aerial photos of his house using a remote control helicopter, which turned out to be a non-starter.

But he refused to give up and researched on the internet the idea of using a meteorological balloon like the ones used by weather centres. he found reports of a Canadian man who had been taking high altitude pictures using weather balloons.

He launched his first, named Icarus I, in October 2008 and it was an amazing success, taking such stunning shots of more than 1,000 miles of the Earth's surface that the American space agency Nasa got in touch.

"Nasa had heard what was happening and wanted to know how I'd done it so cheaply," he said. "People think this is something that costs millions but it doesn't. You just need a bit of technical know-how. I know nothing about electronics and what I do know, I learned from the internet. My family and friends thought I was a bit mad a first but they were suitably impressed with the results.

"The pictures speak for themselves, they put everything into perspective.''

His wife Helen, a 45-year-old web consultant, thought he had lost touch with reality when he told her of his intentions, but their children Faye, nine, Charlie, six, and Jack, two, have backed him from the start.

To control the path taken by the balloon he used a standard GPS tracking device, similar to an average in-car satnav and linked it to a radio transmitter, which allowed him to monitor the balloon's height to within 10 metres and made it easy to find once returned to earth.

He linked his standard digital camera to computer software on the ground and wrapped both the camera and the GPS device in loft insulation from a local DIY store. The entire contraption weighs just 1kg (2.2lb).

The heat produced from these devices, together with the insulation, which costs just 3 a sheet, helps keep it functioning.

The balloon rises through the atmosphere and the higher it goes the more the air pressure decreases, causing the balloon to expand, until it parachutes back down to earth.

Mr Harrison is one of just 40 people in the world and four in the UK using such equipment for fun, has spent 4,000 in total on sending his low-tech balloons into space.

Luckily he has got each one back although sometimes he has to travel up to 50 miles to retrieve his equipment and he can only send it off when weather conditions are ideal.

"We got satisfactory results with the first launch but it nearly landed in the sea, which would have been game over. We were sat in a local pub at the time and I was gobsmacked when I got the images."

He is now designing his third module, Icarus III, which has a rotating lens camera and a rear fixed-lens camera, together with pressure, temperature and humidity sensors.