Stunning pics taken by weather balloon

This Dec. 31, 2012 photo, provided by John Flaig via The Kokomo Tribune, shows an image taken from a high-altitude weather balloon during a four-and-a-half hour 178 mile flight between Mendota, Ill., and Lincoln, Ind.

The Tribune reports that the weather balloon traveled more than 18 miles above the Earth.

Flaig, a 38-year-old computer programmer from Milwaukee, Wis., launched the balloon at around 6 a.m. on a frigidly cold Sunday from a public park in Mendota, Ill. He said he first got interested in near-space photography after watching videos of similar weather-balloon launches on YouTube.

This Dec. 31, 2012 photo, provided by John Flaig via The Kokomo Tribune, shows an image of the Earth taken from a high-altitude weather balloon during a four-and-a-half hour 178 mile flight between Mendota, Ill., and Lincoln, Ind.

This Dec. 31, 2012 photo, provided by John Flaig via The Kokomo Tribune, shows Walton, Ind. from a high-altitude weather balloon, during a four-and-a-half hour 178 mile flight between Mendota, Ill., and Lincoln, Ind.

This Dec. 31, 2012 photo, provided by John Flaig via The Kokomo Tribune, shows an image taken from a high-altitude weather balloon of Grissom Air Reserve Base, background to the left, as it parachuted down in Lincoln, Ind.

This Dec. 31, 2012 photo, provided by John Flaig via The Kokomo Tribune, shows an image taken from a high-altitude weather balloon as it parachuted down in Lincoln, Ind. off Indiana 35.

This Dec. 31, 2012 photo, provided by John Flaig via The Kokomo Tribune, shows an image taken from a high-altitude weather balloon during a four-and-a-half hour 178 mile flight between Mendota, Ill., and Lincoln, Ind.