Oliver Yeh and Justin Lee are two MIT students who had the awesomely crazy idea to assemble a balloon-borne camera that would float to the edge of space and back, taking pictures every 5 seconds along the way. They tested their idea on the ground and then launched their experiment, getting great photos from the edge of our atmosphere.
It proves once again the power of thinkering with low end consumer electronics and some ingenuity can get you photos from the edge of our world for under $150. It has been inspiring me all day!