tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37363152224303977412024-03-13T09:37:56.673+05:30Tech Notes - by sssalviScience engulfs everyone, everyday, every second,every atom .. making its knowledge obligatory for every human being.
In this Blog I try to simplify and demystify the scientific concepts and weeding out mis-concepts.
s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-25410917505018112202021-02-19T10:11:00.000+05:302021-03-13T23:32:43.206+05:30Moon Shadow on Earth captured from satellite during Total Solar Eclipse of 16thFeb1980 AA<p></p><div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHzLyUGSk93wPI-bK_TNkWEG-pKvU9aDVavpxaURumY93DE0Zsm6BfW-kegKlGpO_iDRwwMrZA4qWfi1HlQspZVnIS7QQeN_490ka-0NIqdVVmd7OOAco9VUA3fNhxGCLZCY5mgCh_JM/s406/Feb16A.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHzLyUGSk93wPI-bK_TNkWEG-pKvU9aDVavpxaURumY93DE0Zsm6BfW-kegKlGpO_iDRwwMrZA4qWfi1HlQspZVnIS7QQeN_490ka-0NIqdVVmd7OOAco9VUA3fNhxGCLZCY5mgCh_JM/s320/Feb16A.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p><br /></p><p>After every solar eclipse we see reports with photos of Moon masking the Sun disk.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEY71NeAD0HnnOhPBLULZ3yuZP7uZg5oGUn36RvMRV32YbdQWeJ1ijAtjy3vdBxZwBhe2hDyHZ_5FxcYX1XB0nBZuMyL0-or9nNjhokwO2gw7AdTqzLS7hMDY1n2yamd9abEDo8EB9N8s/s546/Feb16.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEY71NeAD0HnnOhPBLULZ3yuZP7uZg5oGUn36RvMRV32YbdQWeJ1ijAtjy3vdBxZwBhe2hDyHZ_5FxcYX1XB0nBZuMyL0-or9nNjhokwO2gw7AdTqzLS7hMDY1n2yamd9abEDo8EB9N8s/s320/Feb16.jpg" width="320" /></a></p>Another 'must' image in every report is that of that moment when the bright Sun just starts shining after the totality causing a diamond Ring effect also called Baily's beads. <p></p><p></p><div><br /></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This post narrates my unique experience of an <i><b>unusual view</b></i> during Total Solar Eclipse of 16th Feb 1980.</p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p> Of course the reason why others could not see this is that it involved highly complex equipment which was actually being used, albeit for a totally different purpose. Moreover it was purely a chance viewing culminating through several coincidences. </p><div><div> My job involved receiving Earth photos taken by satellites and record the data on magnetic tapes. These satellites were moving around Earth at about 850 Kms height and were transmitting data as a radio signal. </div><div><br /></div><div>On that day, we ( 4 or 5 of us ) were on shift duty. Our data receiving and recording station is about 70 Kms South of Hyderabad, India.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Earlier, the Newspapers had said that for Hyderabad there will be only a partial (about 99% occulation by Moon ) eclipse. Projected times were 2:28 PM to 4:55 PM with a Maximum at 3:46 PM.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously, While travelling from Hyderabad to Station ( 3 Hrs minimum in those days to cover 70 kms ) the discussion was centered around the Total Solar eclipse that day afternoon and what to observe during that period like : Total darkness for 2 minutes, Seeing Stars in daytime, Birds chirping after eclipse end, Corona around moon during total period, Diamond Ring and so on. But it was also expected that due to partial coverage we may experience these phenomenon with less intensity. </div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHum6GtzIPToQbFh3Sj4ool7QROzAO3bgKh_O1gqYbfG6fRUegALMHPp11DIF1BL6hv071qu33ezhD9iEY0fLN_aaZpZNWyt78Qrm0DP-v0Ods28VxKJL53QtaFfKMwva1PNwLaZ5s4TCE/s527/Routine+Data.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHum6GtzIPToQbFh3Sj4ool7QROzAO3bgKh_O1gqYbfG6fRUegALMHPp11DIF1BL6hv071qu33ezhD9iEY0fLN_aaZpZNWyt78Qrm0DP-v0Ods28VxKJL53QtaFfKMwva1PNwLaZ5s4TCE/s320/Routine+Data.jpg" /></a>The satellites make one revolution around Earth in about 102 minutes and our station could see a part of that revolution for about 13 to 15 minutes ( called Satellite Pass ). During this period the data is received and recorded</div><div> on magnetic tapes. During recording we can see the data ( like the one on right ) of the ground, water and other features seen by satellite based cameras. ( Note: This image is a recent one and so it is a high resolution type .. in those days the images were 1km*1km resolution ). </div><div><br /></div><div>Those were the days prior to Internet, Google and Maps, even the PC had not arrived (It came a year later ). Hardly anyone knew that Satellites could take images of Earth.</div><div><br /></div><div>On reaching the station we were disappointed: exactly during eclipse period we would have been busy with our work because there was a satellite pass we had to track (from 3:30PM to 3:45PM )</div><div><br /></div><div>Reluctantly we took our respective positions in front of our workstations.</div><div><br /></div><div>From about 3:00PM we noticed the reduced sun light and it started getting dark and also the temperature started falling. Shadow bands started appearing on ground. At 3:20 we returned to our workstations, disappointed that we missed the REAL fun part of eclipse and got ourselves busy with recording the data.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdBRemRK4sVJ0ovQfErHs3tDk73eV8FJCkbjEq6h2B8QjqjWrNMPxCM9moYbZOPNnRIyGfEmWx9jRqoh2I1X5DH3RYUSFuVW5w1J-Knyi5UyU6EMSoGZfDBym8EIbbOaY7QqCrjnE7lnH/s314/Routine+Data1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdBRemRK4sVJ0ovQfErHs3tDk73eV8FJCkbjEq6h2B8QjqjWrNMPxCM9moYbZOPNnRIyGfEmWx9jRqoh2I1X5DH3RYUSFuVW5w1J-Knyi5UyU6EMSoGZfDBym8EIbbOaY7QqCrjnE7lnH/s0/Routine+Data1.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div> Disappointment was deepened further when we did not see any ground image on video display ( White image seen on left ) which always used to show the nice ground details being acquired.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway the pass was over by 3:42 and as the darkness was still seen outside we ran out to experience the eclipse we noticed that the eclipse was still deepening and it became still darker but what was baffling was the fact that the eclipse was now TOTAL .. unexpectedly it turned out to be a total eclipse. We cursed the newspapers that said it would be a partial eclipse.</div><div><br /></div><div>We were ready with darkened film negatives so we saw the corona , followed by the Diamond ring and then as it started to brighten up we REALLY heard the birds chirping and the Cocks crow in nearby fields thinking that it was dawn.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div>After spending some more time we returned to our work. We ran the recorded tape again to see if we can see the image. Still nothing was seen. Only blank screen. </div><div><br /></div><div>So as per routine procedure we were going to recycle the tape by Erasing the data. Each tape costed several dollars and those days dollar was a very scarce so each tape was precious. </div><div><br /></div><div>At that moment I had a spark in my mind.. <i> is it possible that there IS a data but it is very weak .. because of darkness due to eclipse the image is very feeble???</i> [ I am not ashamed to use I ( instead of WE ) in earlier sentence. Facts are facts. ]</div><div><br /></div><div>We decided to give it a try. We raised all the display controls to maximum .. Maximum Contrast, Highest gains etc. </div><div><br /></div><div>This time we saw a grainy image. AND THERE IT WAS: an unexpected treasure, a goldmine.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5N0Dm1v38-3yHXGsohYZzvZDpqOml6V85rsnJpb8SeO90dRGh3hsoQ1RTd728jRT_Y7lz-d_7ZlWilhfBt9ONYwlCZHG9JX_kgmnddJdnX7IwmgDOZlNEyrTlQp6mmaYndI_AXa2ivPF/s701/eclipse.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="701" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5N0Dm1v38-3yHXGsohYZzvZDpqOml6V85rsnJpb8SeO90dRGh3hsoQ1RTd728jRT_Y7lz-d_7ZlWilhfBt9ONYwlCZHG9JX_kgmnddJdnX7IwmgDOZlNEyrTlQp6mmaYndI_AXa2ivPF/s320/eclipse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>There in front of us was the image of India with a dark patch over Goa, Hubli area.</div><div><br /></div><div>That Dark Egg shaped Patch is the real shadow of Moon falling on Earth during eclipse!!!! </div><div> </div><div>Perhaps the FIRST time ever an eclipse was captured by a Satellite!!!</div><div><br /></div><div>Later we analyzed that the reason for 'no image' in the first place was because of the fact that for full duration of pass the area was in penumbra shadow so the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth surface was very small and not enough to activate the camera sensor fully to generate the regular image. </div><div><div><br /></div><div>For writing this post I have used modern tools to model that solar eclipse and this has thrown light on some points raised above.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hyderabad was in Partial zone but the Station where we received data from satellite was in Total Zone so we could see the full range of eclipse effects while Hyderabad did not because it was in 90% eclipse region.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Google search revealed that after this 1980 image of shadow, next reported image is from Russian station MIR on 11th August 1999:</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZHXVvijOWcCANjcgp9Su9TRUgNnNs6WYDvOZOWS7fADzTJp7h5y41YuLhZv-U9GAr6IlcnsMQeSAiHOZQP5hJwA1oXdkmdlYBTHkeVm8XFTfCyoXzRnZ06UfV3lNjzLbi0xDIpNiOxdyu/s602/Astronauts+on+the+MIR+space+station+captured+this+photo+of+the+august+11th%252C+1999+solar+eclipse.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZHXVvijOWcCANjcgp9Su9TRUgNnNs6WYDvOZOWS7fADzTJp7h5y41YuLhZv-U9GAr6IlcnsMQeSAiHOZQP5hJwA1oXdkmdlYBTHkeVm8XFTfCyoXzRnZ06UfV3lNjzLbi0xDIpNiOxdyu/s320/Astronauts+on+the+MIR+space+station+captured+this+photo+of+the+august+11th%252C+1999+solar+eclipse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> : <a href="https://www.space.com/ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-moon-shadow-photos-from-space.html">https://www.space.com/ring-of-fire-solar-eclipse-moon-shadow-photos-from-space.html</a> ) </div><div><br /></div><div>.</div><div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-2834116384962630482021-02-03T06:43:00.005+05:302021-02-25T08:51:44.169+05:30Total Solar Eclipse ... How, Why, When .. using 16 Feb 1980 eclipse example.<p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPRX3JowitN1dKBUFaSwS-e5VI4RHih6agEbmB_ZzbV_1uZVaR0oCR-gI91oem-yTAVnqzomcHgkPKhTvWhdTAyOs-qwCCOrRevM2o3ttrpvDIQe6g3oSglGLRlMLLFcZ_EoP0O1meBQ/s1800/eclipse+with+percentage+bands+GE.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="1800" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPRX3JowitN1dKBUFaSwS-e5VI4RHih6agEbmB_ZzbV_1uZVaR0oCR-gI91oem-yTAVnqzomcHgkPKhTvWhdTAyOs-qwCCOrRevM2o3ttrpvDIQe6g3oSglGLRlMLLFcZ_EoP0O1meBQ/w623-h216/eclipse+with+percentage+bands+GE.jpg" width="623" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsOKwgYOhDqR9AWDVglEX3c94yfnpQWpka81KnNAbGkjEL1ikI8NnclMWokoEkTBoo_rXs7tO6G4jyAj4k47Nthk-9qP76nPSrIM70VoP37EDY0TrYrFZPKHMTUEIuzvURMvwFjiD8_Y/s701/eclipse.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="701" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsOKwgYOhDqR9AWDVglEX3c94yfnpQWpka81KnNAbGkjEL1ikI8NnclMWokoEkTBoo_rXs7tO6G4jyAj4k47Nthk-9qP76nPSrIM70VoP37EDY0TrYrFZPKHMTUEIuzvURMvwFjiD8_Y/w311-h240/eclipse.jpg" width="311" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsOKwgYOhDqR9AWDVglEX3c94yfnpQWpka81KnNAbGkjEL1ikI8NnclMWokoEkTBoo_rXs7tO6G4jyAj4k47Nthk-9qP76nPSrIM70VoP37EDY0TrYrFZPKHMTUEIuzvURMvwFjiD8_Y/s701/eclipse.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsOKwgYOhDqR9AWDVglEX3c94yfnpQWpka81KnNAbGkjEL1ikI8NnclMWokoEkTBoo_rXs7tO6G4jyAj4k47Nthk-9qP76nPSrIM70VoP37EDY0TrYrFZPKHMTUEIuzvURMvwFjiD8_Y/s701/eclipse.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWJKd9SBtdTGwKBqqTC6OJB-2euaqBBJZscIzlMXvZdSAcvMFX4iSwGrj_ZP1Pf6NNZEdeYeGsQ_YjFztsuFGvWJJvSbO9POesjvMF3OSyENZKce8MJ4JJ7cuX5ZvLqEHEzyfNna42GI/s661/eclipse+with+percentage+bands.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="661" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWJKd9SBtdTGwKBqqTC6OJB-2euaqBBJZscIzlMXvZdSAcvMFX4iSwGrj_ZP1Pf6NNZEdeYeGsQ_YjFztsuFGvWJJvSbO9POesjvMF3OSyENZKce8MJ4JJ7cuX5ZvLqEHEzyfNna42GI/w299-h243/eclipse+with+percentage+bands.jpg" width="299" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dycC9saySoQ_yuUpNGHoceXFRmXfOHuEU8oEejF6CqrZ9rA1-sutLfbs5MhNL9g9OFOiDkVLMO7dCskLTYNIA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxpqRN13qpueTtwegvVoscuiMjdSCGGeNpmWTyq32EeSPuD4cTJpOol8dqwTzd0QrqfnVj9XZ0oMDYuNW1sHg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">How? I suspect you mean why.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Well, first you got the direction of the Moon incorrect. Viewed from above the North Pole, everything (Earth & moon) revolves and rotates counterclockwise. It travels across the sky east to west because the Earth is rotating on a daily basis.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">The moon orbits Earth from west to east. It travels at 2290 miles per hour to the east which makes the shadow move to the east.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">EDIT: Summary.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">The moon's speed dominates, moving the shadow to the east 2290 mph. However, the Earth's rotation subtracts quite a bit from that motion by moving the shadow to the West 700 mph. Finally, the Earth's orbital velocity adds back in a little bit westward 410mph.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">In the end, it moves eastward at 2000 mph.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Detail…</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Drawing a picture of this viewed from above the North Pole with some vectors, showing all of the relevant speeds, it turns out that the moon's orbital speed is the dominant factor here. The speed of the eclipse across the US is very close to 2,000 miles per hour. That is, it travels 2500 miles in 1 hour and 14 minutes. See sources below…</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">You could stop there and say that's close except that the Earth's daily rotation is in the opposite direction at about seven hundred miles an hour this would give us a 1590 mile per hour shadow. So we've got 410 miles per hour to account for.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Lastly, if you look at the geometry of the Sun-Moon-Earth and then consider the Earth's orbital velocity of 67000 miles per hour, you see that this motion moves the shadow to the west[edit was east]. I'm sure there's some trigonometric black magic [edit actually similar triangles] that can be done to account for that additional 410 miles per hour, but I didn't bother with it.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">……….</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">I got the start time of the eclipse at two locations from here by finding zip codes on a zip code map first:</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span class="q-inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline;"><a class="q-box qu-cursor--pointer qu-hover--textDecoration--underline qu-userSelect--text" href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/7/25/16019892/solar-eclipse-2017-interactive-map" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6); background: transparent; border-radius: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; color: #195faa; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition-duration: 180ms; transition-property: text-decoration; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; user-select: text;" target="_blank" title="www.vox.com">A solar eclipse is coming to America. Here’s what you’ll see where you live.</a><span class="q-inlineBlock qu-verticalAlign--text-bottom" name="ExternalLink" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; flex-shrink: 0; height: 16px; line-height: 0; margin-left: 2px; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;" width="16px"><span class="CssComponent__CssInlineComponent-sc-1oskqb9-1 Icon___StyledCssInlineComponent-sc-11tmcw7-0 lcSoNN" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-pack: center; align-items: center; display: inline-flex; height: 16px; justify-content: center; width: 16px;"><svg height="24px" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24px"><g class="icon_svg-stroke" fill-rule="evenodd" fill="none" id="external_link" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="#666"><polyline points="17 13.5 17 19.5 5 19.5 5 7.5 11 7.5"></polyline><path d="M14,4.5 L20,4.5 L20,10.5 M20,4.5 L11,13.5"></path></g></svg></span></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">I got the distance the eclipse travels from here:</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span class="q-inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline;"><a class="q-box qu-cursor--pointer qu-hover--textDecoration--underline qu-userSelect--text" href="https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm" rel="noopener nofollow" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6); background: transparent; border-radius: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; color: #195faa; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; transition-duration: 180ms; transition-property: text-decoration; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; user-select: text;" target="_blank" title="www.daftlogic.com">Distance Calculator</a><span class="q-inlineBlock qu-verticalAlign--text-bottom" name="ExternalLink" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; flex-shrink: 0; height: 16px; line-height: 0; margin-left: 2px; vertical-align: text-bottom; width: 16px;" width="16px"><span class="CssComponent__CssInlineComponent-sc-1oskqb9-1 Icon___StyledCssInlineComponent-sc-11tmcw7-0 lcSoNN" style="-webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-pack: center; align-items: center; display: inline-flex; height: 16px; justify-content: center; width: 16px;"><svg height="24px" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24px"><g class="icon_svg-stroke" fill-rule="evenodd" fill="none" id="external_link" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="#666"><polyline points="17 13.5 17 19.5 5 19.5 5 7.5 11 7.5"></polyline><path d="M14,4.5 L20,4.5 L20,10.5 M20,4.5 L11,13.5"></path></g></svg></span></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">… EDIT 2. …</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">P.S.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">The ground speed at a latitude is = equator.speed * cos(latitude)</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">More accurate numbers:</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Earth dia = 7917.5 mi (Google)</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Earth circum = d * pi = 24,873.6 mi.</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Equator speed = 1036.4 mph</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">St Louis latitude = 38.6270 (Google)</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Speed of St Louis = 809.66 mph</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">Moon speed = 2288 mph (Cool Cosmos, Cal Tech)</span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; direction: ltr; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; text-align: start; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;">2288 -809.6 = 1,478.34 mph difference.</span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Muli, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-size: 15.5px; text-align: left;">A total eclipse of the sun is one of the most awe-inspiring natural phenomena in the world, so be sure to make your plans to see it well in advance!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-3956310231723289992015-06-27T09:42:00.001+05:302015-07-03T11:41:17.524+05:30New Horizons spacecraft to be closest with Pluto on 14th July<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
REALTIME UPDATES:<br />
<br />
UPDATE:<br />
On 30th June NASA fired thrusters aboard the spacecraft for 23 seconds.<br />
This increased the craft velocity by 27 centimeters per second. Seems to be a minor value.... but what it means is that:<br />
- velocity increase is about one-half mile per hour<br />
- this would now position the craft 12,500 kilometers above Pluto’s surface at the closest approach<br />
- Had this correction not been done New Horizons would have arrived 20 seconds late and 184 kilometers off-target from the spot where it will measure the properties of Pluto’s atmosphere.<br />
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======<br />
It has been a long story, started some 10 years ago.<br />
On 19th Jan 2006, NASA launched a spacecraft named 'NEW HORIZONS' to study the most ambiguous of the Planets - ( In fact there is a debate whether it is a Planet at all !! ) - the PLUTO. <br />
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Its ambiguity rises from the fact that it was discovered just in 1930 and it is estimated to have a solar period of 248 years .. so we have not even seen 1/3rd of its orbit to ensure that what we have thought to be its orbit is accurately correct or not.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi43cPukCVrvamYmFXLz6FuqS1M3ix0v5qgebOLojTrqn4VgPikXx6K8DkdKc8VFhhF9sqI1NQJaE_7_90zh_PUNN2MZ9kq0HNfF0Su4fElYjdmcoZeQb5IXKAJbiFy4zSfZJ7FORIVyss/s1600/pluto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi43cPukCVrvamYmFXLz6FuqS1M3ix0v5qgebOLojTrqn4VgPikXx6K8DkdKc8VFhhF9sqI1NQJaE_7_90zh_PUNN2MZ9kq0HNfF0Su4fElYjdmcoZeQb5IXKAJbiFy4zSfZJ7FORIVyss/s320/pluto.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
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The orbit of Pluto that we know is different than all the other planets of Solar System as shown in the image here on left. One can also see that the spacecraft 'New Horizons' is travelling perpendicular to the path of Pluto indicating thereby how critical the imaging time is.<br />
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One can notice the orbit does not lie in the same plane as the other planets. Another point is that Pluto is the only planet which <i>crosses</i> its orbit with its neighboring planet Neptune for some time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqmq0Z5DV4DgglhINxFFYhyphenhyphenWZELeyr3bI7seGqerFHcZLdAv0ifTtMwrDV9jY-k5vMidv2cLqzgO7yGsoJxc2Fu0mxI-dvDQKvMylkHD6RARaZFNMTtHqsfexfDJhKubZ5SO5THIT4Vg0/s1600/img+plan+pluto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqmq0Z5DV4DgglhINxFFYhyphenhyphenWZELeyr3bI7seGqerFHcZLdAv0ifTtMwrDV9jY-k5vMidv2cLqzgO7yGsoJxc2Fu0mxI-dvDQKvMylkHD6RARaZFNMTtHqsfexfDJhKubZ5SO5THIT4Vg0/s320/img+plan+pluto.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Before we see the 'hurdles', here ( image on Right ) is what has been planned as the 'ideal' image plan.<br />
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There are 15 images planned.<br />
Lat/Long Location of images on the surface of planet are marked as green rectangles. Notice the small overlap at the edges so that a contiguous large area is covered without breaks in between for study.<br />
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That is the starting point in gauging the difficulty of imaging Pluto by the spacecraft when it flies nearest to Pluto on 14th July 2015.<br />
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So starting difficulty: You DO NOT know whether what you are going to image is going to be in front of your camera or not. BTW that 'within field of view of camera' is going to be a rectangle of 100Kms X 150 Kms at a distance of some 13000 Kms from the Spacecraft. The spacecraft does not take a single 'click' preceded by 'say cheese', It has to continuously rotate the camera to follow the object during that split second period so that there is no 'shake' in the image.<br />
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This operation has to be precisely timed so that it occurs exactly when the spacecraft is seeing the planet at its center of field. You start a little early , you will see either empty space or just the entry of planet in the field of view .. no useful image in both the conditions.<br />
You start imaging late.. again you will see an empty space through which Pluto might have passed a while ago.<br />
In fact with the current knowledge base, predicted Pluto trajectory can have an uncertainty of +/- 450 seconds.<br />
BTW, we are talking only about the direction in which it enter/exit the field of view, it may so happen that the planet can pass sideways.<br />
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Did I hear someone say : 'Why not wait till you see the entry of Pluto in the field, and then, 'click'?'<br />
Again a small problem. If the spacecraft 'sees' Pluto when will Earthling know it? The spacecraft would be 5000 million kms from Earth at the time of encounter with Pluto. That means the signal from spacecraft would take 4 1/2 hours to reach Earth. If we wait for the signal and then give command then two way delay would mean that the spacecraft would act after 9 hrs by which time Pluto would have moved about 450000 kms! So this strategy would not work.<br />
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Real basic problem is like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA9PxIRjD6k-0kxb8P_6szhetpFMVsvyh0MIvlijZrVcWARiJ1mrENa3_2zmSi8G_ekVQrNm0OewoxSgBBxZM7QUX8wpXHgUYXJJ23AXKZPjSgcP03EngsvLRIWMX5zuwic2qtzLcPFmQ/s1600/ccc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA9PxIRjD6k-0kxb8P_6szhetpFMVsvyh0MIvlijZrVcWARiJ1mrENa3_2zmSi8G_ekVQrNm0OewoxSgBBxZM7QUX8wpXHgUYXJJ23AXKZPjSgcP03EngsvLRIWMX5zuwic2qtzLcPFmQ/s320/ccc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Figure on left shows the journey of New Horizons starting from Earth. The detailed diagram shows how Pluto will travel below<br />
the spacecraft in a cross fashion. Try to imagine how difficult it is if you have to send a spacecraft that would travel 5 billion kms and would cross over the path of Pluto at the EXACT moment when the planet is just below it!!<br />
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It is not that you don't have any way of correction. But the problem is exact modelling the movement of Pluto. Since you don't have sufficient data to predict precisely the long term motion of Pluto, you have to do <i>short term precise predictions</i> using some <i>actual near real time measurements</i> and try to modify your prediction algorithms with some biases based on actual estimates.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUodyHToV16QqHt9pDii6KIEj2OazXRpkiOudVq8qwlbMthMcgq7Y_QFW80wxDidoadjKu6Rru1VCf-LI9coAlRy6yb4jarckSNKzmiKcW9qZQSu7U-0iATtw8Y2aA3wLhDCwygIU3pvQ/s1600/vvvv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUodyHToV16QqHt9pDii6KIEj2OazXRpkiOudVq8qwlbMthMcgq7Y_QFW80wxDidoadjKu6Rru1VCf-LI9coAlRy6yb4jarckSNKzmiKcW9qZQSu7U-0iATtw8Y2aA3wLhDCwygIU3pvQ/s320/vvvv.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Towards this end, NASA has started imaging the planet for last few days. They have taken references of Pluto against known stars and are trying to refine the prediction algorithm.<br />
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Based on these observations scientists have two opportunities to correct the path of spacecraft.. 1st on 30th June and 2nd and final chance on 4th July.<br />
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====<br />
UPDATE:<br />
On 30th June NASA fired thrusters aboard the spacecraft for 23 seconds.<br />
This increased the craft velocity by 27 centimeters per second. Seems to be a minor value.... but what it means is that:<br />
- velocity increase is about one-half mile per hour<br />
- this would now position the craft 12,500 kilometers above Pluto’s surface at the closest approach<br />
- Had this correction not been done New Horizons would have arrived 20 seconds late and 184 kilometers off-target from the spot where it will measure the properties of Pluto’s atmosphere.<br />
<br />
<br />
( ALL IMAGES, EXCEPT THE LINE DIAGRAM ARE FROM NASA WEBSITES )</div>
s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-13520985454116047652014-11-09T11:45:00.000+05:302016-10-01T00:11:42.704+05:30Physical encounters of Philae with Comet !!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="color: red;">There is a running commentary at end:</span></b><br />
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<b>( NOTE: All timings shown here are at Spacecraft end. Rosetta will be about 511 million kms from Earth and one-way light time between Rosetta and Earth would be about 28 minutes 20 seconds. So Earth will see these incidents 28 minutes 20 seconds late )</b><br />
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<b>A table showing timeline of Earth Reporting in Indian Standard Time ( IST ) is here</b><br />
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On 15th Oct '14 Rosetta entered in sub 10 kms orbit around 67P/C-G - closest ever approach of any orbiter around a comet. We already covered it in an earlier post.<br />
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As explained there apart from doing near field observations of the comet, Rosetta is also carrying with it a Landing gear called as Philae. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/12/rosetta_s_instruments_black_background/13467185-1-eng-GB/Rosetta_s_instruments_black_background_medium.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detailed view of the Lander Philae</td></tr>
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The Philae will be released for a first ever soft landing on a comet and will actually conduct several experiments on its surface in the highly dynamic phase of any comet viz. the passage through perihelion when it is nearest to the Sun and its tail is spread longest.<br />
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The actual landing of Philae is planned to be conducted on 12th Nov 2014 which is a historic moment in mankind's history.<br />
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We will cover this event step by step here.<br />
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<b>PREPARATIONS FOR SEPARATION:</b><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUq_y3qdsK7zb_xiOewLf8nlls0BkqFXlily0JcgfQkQrjP4SpN8YqhhyelsZ32gUqSAiwSGE08rZjBaO_zbN4ZbEAgdG7jQaAdgu1yjYDYQTgtg-S-vmiEddTIltqdlap4OcxoLlmQM/s1600/orbits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUq_y3qdsK7zb_xiOewLf8nlls0BkqFXlily0JcgfQkQrjP4SpN8YqhhyelsZ32gUqSAiwSGE08rZjBaO_zbN4ZbEAgdG7jQaAdgu1yjYDYQTgtg-S-vmiEddTIltqdlap4OcxoLlmQM/s1600/orbits.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14.39px;">Various complex maneuvers</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14.39px;"> in the orbit are shown here.</span></td></tr>
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On 11th Nov at 1935 UT it will begin a very crucial and complex maneuver seen in this figure to bring the spacecraft in front of the comet on the Sun side, technically described as ‘Lining up for Separation’ lasting 40 minutes. 10 minutes later the Flywheel which will stabilize Philae in its descent will start rotating.<br />
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<b>MISSION CONTROLLERS DECIDE:</b><br />
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Meanwhile Mission controllers will check whether the maneuver was correctly executed and on target. Once everything is confirmed to be OK, a "go for separation" command will be issued. So this verification and 'Go Ahead' signal issuance will take over an hour due to signal delays of 28 minutes and that is why there is a Two hours gap between pre-delivery maneuver and actual release of Philae from Rosetta.<br />
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Even as the mission controllers take this decision Rosetta and Philae continue with preparations started earlier. getting ready for a possible separation. At 1805 UT, the Philae ‘switch on’ will be initiated. After a warm-up of 20 minutes Active Descent System ( ADS) valve will be opened at 1837 UT. This system emits cold gas thrust in upward direction to counteract the recoil when two Harpoons ( we will come to that later ) are fired at the time of landing.<br />
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At 2003 UT Rosetta will start turning ( Slew ) in attitude which will last for 40 minutes. Flywheel which stabilizes Lander Philae during descent will start rotating at 2024 UT.<br />
It imaged comet from all around as it spun around. This orbit continued till 31st Oct when it was maneuvered in Pre- Delivery orbit in preparation for the position required for actual delivery of Philae.This transition and various other other maneuvers are shown in this figure.<br />
At 0400UT on 12th Nov, Rosetta will start for final orientation to release Philae at its Landing site and ensure that the mothership will not interfere in the path of Lander. This will last 6 minutes. This operation brings the Rosetta in a position to release Philae in correct direction. After the state review upto this point a final ‘Go Ahead’ will be issued by mission controllers between 0635 UT ( Earliest time ) and 0735 UT ( Latest time ).<br />
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Between 0721UT-0823 UT ( under normal start of operations ) systematic switch on of MUPUS, CIVA, ROLIS, SESAME and CONSERT instruments on Philae will be carried out. A counterpart of CONSERT which is on Rosetta will also start functioning. At 0825 UT Lander will switch to its own power.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/12/philae_s_instruments_black_background/13466951-4-eng-GB/Philae_s_instruments_black_background_medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/12/philae_s_instruments_black_background/13466951-4-eng-GB/Philae_s_instruments_black_background_medium.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.22px;">Science instruments on Philae</span></td></tr>
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Adjacent figure shows various instruments in Philae. It is packed with a cache of Instruments. A slideshow describing each instrument will be posted shortly in Slideshare.<br />
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<b>SEPARATION :</b><br />
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After all these are readied , at 08:35 UT, the lander Philae will be released from a distance of 22.5 kms from comet. Philae weighs 100 kgs and it can be pushed away from the orbiter by a regular ejection mechanism ( screw type push ) at a selectable speed of between 0.05 m/s and 0.51 m/s, optimum speed is expected to be about 0.18 m/s. The exact value will be decided autonomously by onboard systems since human intervention is not possible at this stage due to transmission delay. <br />
If the lander somehow fails to be released via this 'speed adjustable' release mechanism then a backup spring mechanism will ensure that the lander is released at a fixed speed of .18m/s.<br />
As soon as it is released CIVA camera will take a couple of ‘farewell’ photographs of its mother-ship Rosetta. At a distance of 100meters from Rosetta ( i.e. 100/ (0.18 m/s) = 555 seconds delay ) at 0843 UT , ROMAP boom and the 3 Landing legs will be extended. During descent at 0857 UT lander will rotate itself by 14 deg so that it lands in correct orientation.<br />
After the release of Philae At 0915 UT Rosetta will change its direction so that it will be able to relay signals between Philae and Earth. During this maneuver antenna on Rosetta will not be pointing to Earth and so there will be a loss of signal which will resume again at 1025 UT and Rosetta will start downlink of all the data stored so far from both Lander and Orbiter.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/9-small-bodies/2014/20140915_Philae_s_primary_landing_site_in_context_f537.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/9-small-bodies/2014/20140915_Philae_s_primary_landing_site_in_context_f537.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #031e31; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 15pt; text-align: left;">The landing site ( Located on a smaller of the two lobes of comet, previously marked as J , but now renamed </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #031e31; font-family: "verdana" , "arial"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Agilkia after the island where artifacts from Temple of Isis are stored when the temple site went under water due to the building of Aswan dam</span></td></tr>
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<b>TOUCHDOWN:</b><br />
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At 1430 UT Lander which is still in a freefall will start its activities again by switching on Anchor mechanism and both the camera systems CIVA and ROLIS and even while they image the landing site waiting for actual touchdown on comet at 1534 UT. This event gets reported to Earth at 0602 UT.<br />
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As soon as touchdown happens ADS will release gas jet for 15 seconds from top to counteract the force being exerted by 2 harpoons that will be fired into comet to ensure that the Lander does not fly off. The flywheel will also be switched off now. Shortly afterwards ( 1538 UT ) CIVA will start Panoramic imaging of comet surface. Parellely science instruments Ptolemy and COSAC begin data gathering. This initial stage SDL (Separation, Descent & landing) science data collection is continued till 1639 UT.<br />
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In another sequence of data collection starting 1720 UT the system collects First Science Sequence data for 7 hours.<br />
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<b><i>BTW don't forget: This mission equipment was conceived, designed and fabricated sometime in 2002 when the technology was not as advanced as now in miniaturization and versatility. Even mission planning was done at that time. Is it not wonderful ? Hats off to those guys!!</i></b><br />
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<i>It is worth mentioning here that the <b>data will NOT be put in public domain</b> for a few MONTHS so do not expect a series of beautiful images from mission cameras immediately.</i><br />
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<i>Running Commentary:12th November 2014 is a historic day in Human History.</i><br />
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<i>ESA's spacecraft Rosetta will release a man-made lander Philae on the comet 67P/C-G.A first time event in the history of mankind.</i><br />
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<i>Webcast live from mission control:<a href="http://new.livestream.com/esa/cometlanding">http://new.livestream.com/esa/cometlanding</a></i><br />
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<i>Rosetta blog:<a href="http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta">http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta</a></i><br />
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<i>ADDED at 0100 IST : The craft is found to be on correct trajectory. 1st GO/NOGO decision is given as OK .. Go Ahead!!</i><br />
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<i>There was a small hiccup initially when heating of Philae started but it was overcome.</i><br />
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<i>This the 1st of 4 GO/NOGO points before the final go ahead for release of Philae.</i><br />
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<i>If any GO/NOGO decision is negative then the operation will be aborted and it will take atleast 2 weeks to reprogram the new set of landing sequence.</i><br />
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<i>2nd decision will be at 0530 IST and 3rd will be at 0705 IST 4th at 1205 or 1305 IST</i><br />
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<i>=======</i><br />
<i>00:10 GMT</i><br />
<i>2nd GO/NOGO decision : GO AHEAD!!</i><br />
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<i>Commands for release of Philae have now been finalized.. to be uploaded shortly.</i><br />
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<i>Next GO/NOGO update will now be delayed to 0805 IST</i><br />
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<i>3rd GO/NOGO is positive!!! Both Rosetta and Philae have a GO Ahead for Separation.</i><br />
<i>Rosetta maneuver for separation positioning will start as scheduled at 0958 IST</i><br />
<i>Final GO/NOGO announcement set for 1305 IST</i><br />
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<i>Cold Gas thruster in ADS ( Active Descent System ) used to provide counter-force when the harpoons fire has shown up a problem and will not function during touchdown. But mission controllers do not anticipate it as a major malfunction and say that operations will go on as scheduled because the harpoons and the screws should be able to hold the craft down.</i><br />
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<i>More details now available about ADS problem:</i><br />
<i>ADS has a gas tank with a wax seal. In order to release the gas to outlet mechanism the seal needs to be punctured with a pin. There is also a redundant pin. The change in pressure should acknowledge that pin has punctured the seal. But no pressure change happened even after four attempts.</i><br />
<i>It is possible that pressure sensing mechanism may be giving erroneous readings even though the seal has been punctured.</i><br />
<i>In spite of a possible failure the landing was not postponed because it is felt that there is no point in trying again the thing later ( in next attempt after 2 weeks ) which was already attempted 4 times.</i><br />
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<i>Departing image of mother-ship Rosetta by Philae</i><br />
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<i>And mothership also checks .. bachheke paira khul gaye ji</i><br />
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<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2P8u1eCUAAEZ67.jpg:large" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2P8u1eCUAAEZ67.jpg:large" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i><i>AND FINALLY ....... IT HAS LANDED ON COMET 67P/C-G ! ! ! ! </i></div>
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<em>Update: 13th Nov 1630 Pacific time ( 14 Nov 0030GMT / 0600IST)</em></div>
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<em>As per initial tweet after the above incident it said </em></div>
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<em>"Maybe today we didn't just land once...we even landed twice!" </em></div>
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<em>Pointing to some anomaly somewhere. We thought that it has just made a bounce after first landing. But then there was a silence for almost a day and later tweets implied that the lander has lost contact with the world ( but no one said that openly .. nobody wants that to happen ).</em></div>
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<em>But now a slightly more clearer picture is emerging .. not very bright but at least a very short life is expected from Philae.</em></div>
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<em>the points are :</em></div>
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<em>1. Philae landed almost at the expected touchdown point and at expected time. The ADS was known to have a problem but later it was realized that even the harpoons had not fired. The screws appeared to have been rotated but the lander was not secured. </em></div>
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<em>2. The Magnetic experiment instrument ROMAP indicated that the lander had undergone 3 bumps !!!... 1st 1533 UT ( these are spacecraft timings .. Earth reporting time 28 minutes later 1603 approx. ) . then a bump at 1726 and last at 1733 .. </em></div>
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<em>3. The time difference of 2 hrs between 1st and 2nd landing suggests that under the weak gravity of comet ( it weighs about 10^13 kgs ) the Philae could have bumped almost 1/2 kms from surface ( caution: that is <strong>my</strong> figure ;) could be totally wrong. do not take it seriously) . It reached surface and just prior to landing its speed was 1 m/s .. it ricocheted with 38 cms /sec and so landed after 2 hrs ( low gravity is a weird thinking for Earthly humans ). Again my thinking .. no official view .. it might have slipped and landed again at the 3rd instant. </em></div>
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<em>4. Now it appears to be stationary. But there is no telemetry after about 1800 UT . BUT AS PER THR THE LAST TELEMETRY, SCIENCE INSTRUMENTS HAD STARTED THEIR JOB ASSUMING A NORMAL LANDING. </em></div>
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<em>5. Solar panels generating normal power but are receiving Sunlight for only 90 minutes against expected </em> 700+ minutes.</div>
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So conclusions are : It could have landed finally in a pit blocking sunlight. A CIVAS panoramic view shows open sky in one of the cameras .. ( Normally the cameras should point to ground and so all the images should show ground ) implying that Philae is in a tilted position.</div>
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So what next? .. Philae has to work on internal batteries and so may drain them off killing the mission. One sure casualty is that the mechanically moving instruments ( MUPUS and APXS ) are no no for sure. </div>
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BUT, there is also a possibility that mission controllers will USE these mechanical devices to push up the lander in a last ditch effort. .. fingers crossed.. </div>
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Pray.. </div>
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<em>UPDATE : 14th Nov 1800 PST ( 15th Nov 0200UT/0730 IST )</em><br />
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<em>Instead of describing the activities I am reproducing essential Tweets by Philae Team ;) </em></div>
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<em>Quotes from @Philae2014 ... the Lander's Tweeter Handle and <span style="color: lime; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>my</strong> interpretation of the tweets ( not the official views of Rosetta/Philae team )</span></em><br />
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<em>"@ESA_Rosetta I was quite a bit away from you, wasn’t I? "</em><br />
<em><span style="color: lime; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Philae was out of communication for a conciderable time .. Not due to problem but a known outage due to no visibility.</span></em></div>
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<em>"Phew! @ESA_Rosetta I am confident that our teams will find me. Wouldn’t like to lose touch with you"</em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: lime;">Exact location of Philae is not yet known ... despite a good radio contact. Later there are some goody goody tweets and then again it is in 'radio shadow'</span></span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: lime;"><br /></span><span style="color: lime;">After regaining contact :</span></span></em><br />
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<em>"Good morning, Earth! It’s been a busy night at #67P! Now that I’m back in touch with my team, I’ll tell you all about it!"</em></div>
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<em>"In the end, I won’t be firing my harpoons, just in case. Safety comes first!"</em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: lime;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Firing of Harpoons into the ground may creat a counterforce to dislocate/'lift away from surface' so harpoons were not fired. Instead they initiated SD2 activity wherein lander drills a hole up to 23 cm depth and delivers material to onboard instruments for analysis</span> </span></span></em></div>
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<em>"Back to work! I’m now drilling into the surface of #67P… I’ll give you updates as soon as I can!"</em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">After 7 hrs gap</span></div>
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"Few hours until I can communicate with @ESA_Rosetta again and transmit the @RosettaSD2 drilling results!"<br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So one set of SD2 ( Sampling, drilling and distribution subsystem ) experiment has been colmpleted</span></div>
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<span style="color: lime; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">After another 2 hrs:</span><br />
" Link with @ESA_Rosetta later then expected... perhaps I moved a little bit again?!! :) " <span style="color: lime;">and continues:</span><br />
"I confirm that my @RosettaSD2 went all the way DOWN and UP again!! First comet drilling is a fact! :) "<br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It appears that during ( successful ) drilling Philae has dislocated from its earlier position.</span></div>
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"I just started lifting myself up a little and will now rotate to try and optimize the solar power!"<br />
"Also my rotation was successful (35 degrees). Looks like a whole new comet from this angle :) " <br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ESA team appears to have lifted Philae a little and rotated it for a better illumination of Solar panels.</span></div>
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<span style="color: lime; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">After one hour :</span><br />
"56 hours that I'm on the comet now conducting science measurements non stop!<br />
So much hard work.. getting tired... my battery voltage is approaching the limit soon now "</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqqCrBIXhD8h28yLqNH-O0W74FSYuv6-g9kJGkpb86fpNd_OHYHLrdj9niNEWiwT9CRNGUof56nrhRjbAUL1J_-9Sp2X-Ksxjlgk8kaqJvf6TDmuMsjMOobCLn41w4nx_PV0UiXIJYp8Q/s1600/B2cHl83IEAA7w3R%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqqCrBIXhD8h28yLqNH-O0W74FSYuv6-g9kJGkpb86fpNd_OHYHLrdj9niNEWiwT9CRNGUof56nrhRjbAUL1J_-9Sp2X-Ksxjlgk8kaqJvf6TDmuMsjMOobCLn41w4nx_PV0UiXIJYp8Q/s1600/B2cHl83IEAA7w3R%5B1%5D.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plot of how the batteries have drained due to lack of Sufficient Solar Illumination<br />
( ESA Image )</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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"I just completed a @Philae_Ptolemy measurement!!"<br />
<span style="color: lime;">PTOLEMY is an experiment [Using MODULUS protocol (Methods Of Determining and Understanding Light elements from Unequivocal Stable isotope compositions) ] to understand the geochemistry of light elements, such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.</span></div>
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"Just completed another ROLIS image! That means that I've imaged 3 different spots on the comet!"<br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ROLIS is an Imaging System on lower plate of Philae to provide the first close-up images of the landing site</span></div>
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"My last scheduled measurement for part 1 of #CometLanding is @ConsertRosetta: just started!"</div>
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"I will use all my remaining energy to "communicate" between @ESA_Rosetta and myself with @ConsertRosetta"</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: lime;">CONSERT: COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission transmits RF signals @ about 90MHz through the comet nucleus between Philae and Rosetta orbiter for studying the internal structure of Comet ( akin to CT scan )</span></span></div>
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<em><span style="color: lime;">It also appears that now ESA may stop ( at least in immediate future ) using Philae for scientific studies.</span></em><i><br /></i>
<i><br /><br />Last Update 16 Nov 00GMT </i><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Latest quotes from Rosetta Team Blog ( Blog title speaks a lot ):</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><span style="color: lime;">Title of Blog : </span>OUR LANDER’S ASLEEP</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>With batteries depleted and not enough sunlight ..., Philae has fallen into 'idle mode' ,.... all instruments .... are shut down.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Contact lost at 00:36 UTC. </i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>No contact possible unless sufficient sunlight falls on the solar panels.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>====</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><span style="color: lime;">And its Twitter : </span>I'm feeling a bit tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap… zzzzzz</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>====</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><span style="color: lime;">Update on earlier post : ( from other sources : ) </span>SD2 drill experiment requires about 80 watt-hrs </i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>=====</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>On Whether 1.5 Hrs sunlight is sufficient to recharge for occasional useful bouts :</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>.. very unlikely ..The battery has to be heated to 0 deg C for recharge. This requires 50W. Current solar power = 1.5 Hrs * 1W ( max ) + 20 min * 4W .</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>So we have to wait for 1 AU from Sun ( Near perihelion ) when some chance of sporadic operations may be possible.</i></span></span><i><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="color: lime;">.</span></span></i><span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Solar radiation /sqM .. at 1 AU = 1286.31 ( near perihelion )</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i> at current distance ) = 142.92</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Currently it is generating 1.5+1.6 = about 3 WH</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>so during perihelion it may generate 30WH=45W daily .. may be useful for one operation in 2 3 days .. just guess</i></span></span><i><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="color: lime;">.</span></span></i><span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i> based on the assumption that the power generation is directly proportional to incident solar radiation. .. ( this is my ASSUMPTION )</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: lime; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>========</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Update 16Nov 0815 PST ( 1615GMT / 2145 IST )</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Image of Philae captured by Rosetta after 1st bounce:</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>ESA has republished the Earlier image sequence .. with an addition of Philae in flight after 1st bounce,</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>The large circle is the dust that rose when Philae touched on the comet.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZUuWjLL7-77DpqBaiUjQLdLaFuuonErhsKz6sctblk4lco8OVMgSFCmIg3hNS0zZzbKA1x5koJNd3iEa4ZhvKmYqsmsru4s4JKeB3KgTWrcVYt4qKCVmt_HfUZBl1GV4nGsQ1JNwNwM/s1600/ph+shadow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZUuWjLL7-77DpqBaiUjQLdLaFuuonErhsKz6sctblk4lco8OVMgSFCmIg3hNS0zZzbKA1x5koJNd3iEa4ZhvKmYqsmsru4s4JKeB3KgTWrcVYt4qKCVmt_HfUZBl1GV4nGsQ1JNwNwM/s1600/ph+shadow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>After touchdown it could not harpoon the ground so it rebounced from surface and rose with about 40cms/sec. It is visible as a white dot ( identified as Philae in a small red circle ).</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>How do you confirm that it is not an artifact on surface? There is a tell tell shadow marked in the image.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Perhaps this is a starting point to identify a possible current resting place of orbiter because we now know the direction in which it travelled.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>=====</i></span></span><br />
<i style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Update 16Nov 1730 EDT ( 1130GMT / 0500 IST )</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>Rosetta's lander Philae is out of hibernation!</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>The signals were received at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt at 22:28 CEST on 13 June. More than 300 data packets have been analysed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: lime; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>This fellow refuses to give up!!</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: lime;"><i><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The thing drank the first sun rays and got sufficiently rejuvenated to say " Hi guys, wait and watch me during perihelion till the end of 2015!</span></i></span></span>
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=============== ======================== =====================<br />
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The illusive Philae ( the probe which landed on the comet surface ) was finally located in an image sent bt the orbitting craft Rosetta on 2nd SEpt 2016 from 2.7 kms altitude.<br />
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Philae landed on one side rather than on its three legs.<br />
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========================= ======================= =================<br />
AND LAST UPDATE ;) <br />
================= ======================== ==================== ====<br />
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Update time 30th Sept 2016/2300 Hrs IST<br />
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Today the Rosetta spacecraft was made to fall on the surface of the comet <i> 67P/C-G </i>as a final end of life activity.<br />
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End of Mission ( EOM ) was planned because noe the comet is going away from Sun and the level of sunlight is just not sufficient to keep the spacecraft alive anymore.<br />
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Final maneuver was started at 29 Sept 20:50 GMT when the craft was at 19 kms from the surface of comet.<br />
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Even while crash-landing it took images from very near to surface.<br />
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Based on post burn trajectory computation the landing time was computed to be : 1038 GMT and known to Earth after 40 minutes transmission delay.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Green dot shows the landing site.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MY Death Pit .. Rosetta sends image of landing spot from 2 Kms </td></tr>
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Finally around 1120 GMT today [ Earth time .. on comet it was 40 minutes early ] ( 1650 IST ) the signal from Rosetta died.<br />
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That brings to an end a fantastic mission started with a launch in 2004, It orbited around the Sun about 6 times covering 8 billion-kilometres after three Earth flybys and a Mars flyby, in addition to two asteroid encounters.<br />
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In the final leg of its journey it went in a 31 months hibernation finally woke up in January 2014 in preparation of final rendezvous with the comet in August 2014.<br />
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RIP o great Rosetta and Philae.<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #031e31; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">ALL IMAGES ( EXCEPT THE ONE SHOWING MANEUVERS ) ARE FROM ESA WEBSITE</span> </div>
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-45671259083979069962014-10-28T22:37:00.001+05:302014-11-06T02:51:33.277+05:302014 .. one of the best year in Space studies!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Humans have been studying the cosmos for generations .. from Earth till the advent of satellites and from satellite platforms later. Even there were times when a deployed probe landed on heavenly bodies or even man set his foot on moon a few times.<br />
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But the year 2014 gave a few never before opportunities of Comet studies in space watch from near. For example the comet Siding Spring happened to be near Mars when two new probes ( launched in the end of 2013 ) reached in the vicinity of Mars in addition to those which are already revolving around it. They provided ample observations to study its nature and composition from a distance of a few thousand kilometers for the first time in human history. But we are one of the most lucky lot in the history of mankind to witness an oncoming event in comet study .<br />
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<a href="http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/9-small-bodies/2014/20141027_cg_navcam_20141018_1_damia_f840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/9-small-bodies/2014/20141027_cg_navcam_20141018_1_damia_f840.jpg" height="320" width="273" /></a><br />
Already the European Space agency's probe Rosetta has come <i>within a few kms</i> of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko ( we will refer to it as Comet 67P/C-G henceforth in this blog ) and sent a few stunning images.<br />
On left: Image taken on 18 October from a distance of about 8 kilometers from the surface. Are covered is about 1.4 kilometers wide. It contains a wide variety of remarkable landforms, circular pits and scallop-shaped scarps, that result from weird comet surface modification processes.<br />
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( Image: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam / Damia Bouic )<br />
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Rosetta is currently less than 10 km from comet travelling along with it at a breathtaking speed of 60 000 km/h, Later in mid Nov 2014 it will send a lander - yes you read it correctly, a <b>LANDER - </b> Philae on the comet surface which will soft-land on it and grout/anchor itself there by drilling 3 screws in the surface where its 3 legs will rest. Unlike the Moon lander which moved around the moon's surface and studied various landscapes and rocks, the Philae will carry out exploration about the comet composition apart from obtaining images <i>from the actual surface of comet</i> from this ' base station ' using 10 instruments which it carries with it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjibfBHkCx8dQvOYgB7gsmVYo2JUGv0F_B8qzNoW9Sp6qEmZCT8LhJxinn3gaHEp4ESPXoSzhiFR8Svakbx7JeRlBxwmuX3w78o9aJo6cfn9mJ5jEccM41Q38HB2aCpzSbNcW5KpgxnL50/s1600/Philae.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjibfBHkCx8dQvOYgB7gsmVYo2JUGv0F_B8qzNoW9Sp6qEmZCT8LhJxinn3gaHEp4ESPXoSzhiFR8Svakbx7JeRlBxwmuX3w78o9aJo6cfn9mJ5jEccM41Q38HB2aCpzSbNcW5KpgxnL50/s1600/Philae.jpg" height="182" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Philae island in Nile River </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Philae by the way, obtains its name from the island in the river Nile where an obelisk - made out of Rosetta stone - was found that had names of Cleopatra and Ptolemy engraved on it which helped in understanding the Egyptian civilization. ESA hopes that the spacecraft will similarly unravel the secrets of galactic origin. )</div>
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<b>Want to win a prize? Create a suitable name for the location where Philae will land. Last date for entry 3rd Nov 2014 : https://in.news.yahoo.com/esa-rosetta-mission-partners-invite-names-landing-061416327.html</b></div>
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Philae though is NOT the first man-made object to touch the comet. In July 2005, Deep Impact, a NASA probe intentionally crash-landed with a high speed on comet Tempel 1 burying itself in its nucleus and sent images of the surrounding shaft walls that it created.<br />
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The story of Rosetta spacecraft by itself is quite interesting. Launched on 2 March 2004 aboard an Ariane 5G+ from Kourou. After four gravity assists - one by Mars and three by Earth - it reached its destination viz. Comet 67P/C-G.<br />
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Figure shows what is meant by the term gravity assist by plotting the 1st Earth assist used to change the direction of Rosetta on 4th March 2005. ( Event B in the overall life-cycle explained later )<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMQbKhUaXdRiO04_bYM7HcGuepaDTx-q8roYeJGPvUeae9qa_YWBidPjrg0KMXwjgEl297vZ1ztyVImpgJOZ01Vu2GLAH-JbHMeKvMPSWFxHFgmJL2fzcNQhAam2l0ec05DQG6GJIwi0/s1600/Rosetta+Earth+assist+5mar05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMQbKhUaXdRiO04_bYM7HcGuepaDTx-q8roYeJGPvUeae9qa_YWBidPjrg0KMXwjgEl297vZ1ztyVImpgJOZ01Vu2GLAH-JbHMeKvMPSWFxHFgmJL2fzcNQhAam2l0ec05DQG6GJIwi0/s1600/Rosetta+Earth+assist+5mar05.jpg" height="143" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEMyoIqPKGYJgD5JPHrR1cv0kbDiyj_yp5QRq_Zbo98d6gno0HPMHAa33-dsYYsCwMp2JLhie-s_zwe3Vol8fa2Ehl4W5EYL-QzbYdpAv47ZRHxFpeEtVD7lUKuU0NY-3u23_yLuoYCoA/s1600/Velocity+curve+Earth+assist+rosetta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEMyoIqPKGYJgD5JPHrR1cv0kbDiyj_yp5QRq_Zbo98d6gno0HPMHAa33-dsYYsCwMp2JLhie-s_zwe3Vol8fa2Ehl4W5EYL-QzbYdpAv47ZRHxFpeEtVD7lUKuU0NY-3u23_yLuoYCoA/s1600/Velocity+curve+Earth+assist+rosetta.jpg" height="146" width="200" /></a></div>
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Green line in left figure is the path that Rosetta traveled. Hourly positions of it are marked by dots and the big Red dot represents Earth. Earth's gravity 'pulls' the craft increasing its speed ( see right side figure ) from 30kms/sec to over 38 kms /sec but a retro rocket fired just in time brings down the speed to 34 kms/sec. Effectively the spacecraft gains speed from 30kms/sec to 34 kms/sec. Due to this increase in speed the spacecraft orbit around Sun changed to a new orbit which actually is a Trans Martian orbit.<br />
<br />
We quickly travel with the spacecraft:<br />
<br />
One orbit around Earth A to B for a year. The 1st Earth assist explained above transferred it towards Mars and with Mars assist (C) it deviated back to Earth but with a higher speed. 2nd Earth assist (D) sent the spacecraft to a still higher orbit beyond Mars with a 2 year orbital period. So it returned to Earth ( Nov'07 to Nov'09 ) and a third Earth assist ( F ) sent it to its final orbit ( about just less than 6 years ) during which it encountered the 67P/C-G comet.<br />
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Figure below shows the paths of various bodies ( SUN, Earth, Mars, 67P/C-G and Rosetta ) about solar system for over a decade. Notice that after meeting the Comet in August ’14 the Rosetta follows it continuously and is expected to follow upto Dec ‘ 15 ( i.e. near ‘16 in top left corner ) covering the crucial phase (bright green line ) near comet’s perihelion in August 2015, at 186 million kilometres.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLzyPI1KcFgyG_dNAXrTSp5-3e6YFHTH2QYttfSfWHdfGV3dAQZDhDKrf77M2auXaL6XXSzmiKfCL9mM3rhLV_w9tTekFOFPO1fqBb2dGpmzU8C3oNXr6h3hh1MFctfvt3pUeLuxAmlQ/s1600/Rosetta+path+solar+system2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLzyPI1KcFgyG_dNAXrTSp5-3e6YFHTH2QYttfSfWHdfGV3dAQZDhDKrf77M2auXaL6XXSzmiKfCL9mM3rhLV_w9tTekFOFPO1fqBb2dGpmzU8C3oNXr6h3hh1MFctfvt3pUeLuxAmlQ/s1600/Rosetta+path+solar+system2.jpg" height="326" width="640" /></a></div>
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For dynamic representation of this lifecycle visit : <a href="http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/">http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/</a><br />
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In<i> </i>between Rosetta has made observations of a couple of Asteroids viz. 2867 Steins (in 2008) and 21 Lutetia (in 2010). In June 2011 it went into hibernation till January 2014.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl4F-xfAh3VpFnvkVlVbFu8hg4-huSnu2AJ7pfBVyhVXae1w9pdveA0Y4A6VI6FtKZQlGk3An_gwRX7arXpTBbrRkDbvlgOVkBKsICut2JJuNhZQdiyP1koY6CmtuA-oz4HKnsoGaiEeQ/s1600/Rosetta+path+near+comet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl4F-xfAh3VpFnvkVlVbFu8hg4-huSnu2AJ7pfBVyhVXae1w9pdveA0Y4A6VI6FtKZQlGk3An_gwRX7arXpTBbrRkDbvlgOVkBKsICut2JJuNhZQdiyP1koY6CmtuA-oz4HKnsoGaiEeQ/s1600/Rosetta+path+near+comet.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
Since then it has been travelling along the comet. From 1st Oct 2014 it was travelling at a distance of 19 kms from the comet. On 15th Oct it was moved so that it traveled along with the comet at a distance of just 10 kms. The comet is rotating on its axis once in 12 hours so Rosetta continuously obtained high resolution images of the comet head from all around and studied in detail the landing site to have a clear insight of its texture and environs in preparations for correct and flawless landing.<br />
Today ( Oct 29, 2014) it is 495 million kms from Earth but along the curved path that it has traveled over years it has covered 6527 million kms. Even as I write this I got the news that a very crucial maneuver has been carried out by pushing the spacecraft away from its 10 kms orbit. After it travels in this orbit for 3 days another correction will bring the orbit to 30 kms from comet in preparation for releasing Philae from a distance of 22.5 kms on 12th Nov to land on the planet the last correction will be carried out 2 hours prior to release of Philae. <br />
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Again the complex path that the craft will take can be seen in this video:<br />
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<a href="http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/10/31/rosetta-lined-up-for-lander-delivery/#comment-131797">http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/10/31/rosetta-lined-up-for-lander-delivery/#comment-131797</a><br />
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Once Philae anchors itself to the comet head, it will communicate to Earth through the mother aircraft Rosetta which will be hovering nearby.<br />
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It is expected that the system will continue to send data to Earth till end 2015.<br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-43625104786250019082014-06-05T08:41:00.002+05:302014-12-06T01:53:36.281+05:30INDEX <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Following topics are currently covered in this Blog.<br />
INDEX to ALL the Blogs under Various Topics is <b><a href="http://salviblogs.blogspot.com/">HERE</a></b><br />
<br />
This blog being contemporary in nature, new topics are continuously added.<br />
<br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2014/11/note-timings-shown-here-are-at.html">Physical encounters of Philae with Comet !!</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2014/10/2014-one-of-best-year-in-space-studies.html">2014 .. one of the best year in Space studies!!</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2014/06/jamming-of-satellites-what-we-feared.html">Jamming of satellites .. What we feared all these years has finally happened</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2012/06/eclipse-of-venus-on-6th-june-2012.html">Eclipse of Venus on 6th June 2012</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/11/conservation-of-energy-in-essential.html">Energy efficient street lighting</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/11/conservation-of-energy-in-essential.html"> A star appeared only for 8 months .. 2000 years ago</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/10/do-cellphones-lead-to-cancer-doubtful.html">Do Cellphone towers lead to Cancer?</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/09/apollo-landing-sites-on-moon-imaged-by.html">Apollo landing sites .. Imaged by Lunar Orbiter</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/08/meghatropiques-french-satellite-for.html">Meghatropiqes</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/07/few-points-that-interested-me-while.html">Launch Video Notes</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/06/two-new-innovations-to-charge.html">Two innovations to Charge Cellphones</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/06/total-lunar-eclipse-today.html">Total Lunar Eclipse</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/05/dont-cry-in-space.html">Don't cry in Space</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/05/world-class-underground-laboratory.html">World class Underground Lab</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/05/solar-powered-plane-flies-international.html">Two flying feats in one week</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/02/quoting-from-deccan-chronicle-dated-6th.html">Technology at what cost? Why solar electricity is not efficient in India?</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/02/asteroids-meteors-and-their-impact.html">Asteroids, Meteors and their impact locations in India.</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/02/which-places-are-best-for-astronomical.html">Which places are the best for Astronomical observations?</a><br />
- <a href="http://sssalvi.blogspot.com/2011/01/two-suns-in-news.html">'Two Suns' in News</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://salviblogs.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> Back to Main Index</a><br />
<br />
</div>
s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-57150546779490936432014-06-05T07:49:00.002+05:302014-06-06T08:25:03.414+05:30Jamming of satellites .. What we feared all these years has finally happened<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a><br />
From the days of Arthur C Clark's time we had that fear behind our minds. We knew that the satcom has this biggest vulnerability : J A M M I N G !!<br />
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But mutual courtesy .. more than a rule of law saved us all these years from this catastrophe.<br />
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Now finally it has happened : Arabsat is jammed. .. and its operators have approached ITU for justice.<br />
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Read <b><a href="http://themadspaceball.com/2014/06/04/jam-on-it-arabsats-ethiopian-space-jam-problem/">more here.</a> </b> <br />
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Also refer the comment that I have posted later.<br />
This is not the first time.<br />
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<a href="http://salviblogs.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Back to Main Index</a></div>
s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-46982726732393765212012-06-01T23:16:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:36:34.118+05:30Eclipse of VENUS on 6th June 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>Solar System planets are almost aligned in one plane ( see Table below ) except Mercury, Venus and Pluto.<br />
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<table border="" style="background-color: white;"><tbody>
<tr align="center"><th align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Planet</span></th><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">distance</span></th><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">revolution</span></th><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">eccentricity</span></th><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">inclination</span></th></tr>
<tr><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></th><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">(A.U.)</span></th><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></th><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></th><th><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">(deg)</span></th></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Mercury</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.387</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">87.969 d</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.2056</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">7.005</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Venus</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.723</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">224.701 d</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.0068</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">3.3947</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Earth</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">1.000</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">365.256 d</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.0167</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.0000</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Mars</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">1.524</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">686.98 d</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.0934</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">1.851</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Jupiter</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">5.203</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">11.862 y</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.0484</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">1.305</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Saturn</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">9.537</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">29.457 y</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.0542</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">2.484</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Uranus</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">19.191</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">84.011 y</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.0472</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.770</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Neptune</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">30.069</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">164.79 y</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.0086</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">1.769</span></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left"><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">Pluto</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">39.482</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">247.68 y</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">0.2488</span></td><td><span style="background-color: #999999; color: #f3f3f3;">17.142</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
So the chances of these planets getting aligned with Sun and Earth are rare ( It can happen only when these planets cross the Sun near Ecliptic plane. )<br />
This alignment makes the transit of Venus to occur in pairs. Each pair is 8 years apart BUT the subsequent pair happens after more than a century. ( with a gap of 122 years )<br />
Last occurance in this century was on 8th June 2004 so second one is on 6th June 2012 ( for India ).<br />
And the reason why astronomers are more interested in this year's randezevious is that it is that this transition occurs when the Sun has its solar activity at its peak and so astronomers may be able to observe Venus Outer periphery for atmospheric studies.<br />
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If you miss this opportunity now then wait for December 2117 and December 2125 !!<br />
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In India we will see this event from about 0702 IST to 1022 IST.<br />
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The Venus will enter Sun's disk from about NNW ( equivalent to about 10 o'clock position of Hour hand of a clock ) and transit in front of Sun for abot 3Hrs20Mts and Venus will exit the solar disc at about ENE, i.e. 2:30 position of Hour hand of clock.<br />
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( Added after seeing the traffic to this page:<br />
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Transit times for US ( all local times ) on <b>5th</b> June 2012<br />
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CA and neighbouring states : 1506 to 1524<br />
UT area : 1605 to 1623<br />
TX area : 1705 to 1723<br />
PA area : 1804 to 1822<br />
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Transit times for other countries / Cities :<br />
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Germany,Russia,France ( most of Europe ),Cairo : 6th June / 0637 to 0654<br />
Adis ababa : 6th June / 0437 to 0455<br />
Algeria : 6th June / 0538 to 0555<br />
Asia Minor,Nairobi : 6th June / 0737 to 0655<br />
Istanbul : 6th June / 0837 to 0855<br />
China and Neighbouring countries : 6th June 0629 to 1231 ( one of longest visibility in Northern Hemisphere)<br />
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Southern Hemisphere has the longest visibility:<br />
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Adelaide 6th June 0804 to 1357<br />
Brisbane,Sydney 6th June 0833 to 1426<br />
New Zealand 6th June 1033 to 1625<br />
Tahiti 6th June 1230 to 1526 )<br />
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DO NOT WATCH THE SUN DIRECTLY. ( Karna was said to have that ability but you are not Karna ).<br />
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Precautions and directions of how to observe the Solar eclipse are reproduced below from <a href="http://www.rasnz.org.nz/2012Transit/Venus2012.html">http://www.rasnz.org.nz/2012Transit/Venus2012.html</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Quote</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Whenever the Sun is to be observed safe viewing methods must be used. Any attempt to view the Sun directly could result in instant blindness. </span><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">The safest way is to project the image of the Sun onto a suitable screen. Alternatively a suitable, specially designed, Solar filter may be placed in front of the telescope. </span><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><br style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">It is NOT safe to use a filter at the eyepiece as the focussed heat from the Sun could shatter it. </span></span>
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Unquote</span></span><br />
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As usual there is a Indian jugaad to see the Sun. But whether that is possible in this digital era is a question.<br />
Take TWO black and white ( X ray films are better ) unexposed negatives ( did someone say 'what is that', not your fault baby , the B&W films are very rare ). Open them in full bright sunlight and keep for full two minutes in sunlight. Then develop these films as usual. After drying you could view Sun through these TWO films held together in front of eye. ( Never try to see the sun thru a single layer of such darkened film.<br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-53478628833789407012011-11-07T21:54:00.003+05:302014-06-05T21:46:43.066+05:30Energy efficient street lighting.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>Conservation of energy in an essential sector is Street Lighting.</div>
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You can't do without it. You can't reduce the light intensity per unit area. The lamps have to operate in open so have to withstand nature's fury .. heat,rain,dust,wind and so on.</div>
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At the same time the desired factors are .. longevity, reduced power consumption, no significant reduction in illumination over a period of time.</div>
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The new technologies give rise to new lamps which will meet these diverse requirements.</div>
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<div>
Read on in this article <b><a href="http://www2.electronicproducts.com/2_energy_efficient_streetlight_solutions-article-fajb_street_lights_Nov2011-html.aspx">here</a> .</b><br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-15100468105357847372011-10-26T14:07:00.002+05:302014-06-05T21:47:06.999+05:30A Star appeared for just 8 months!! .. 2000 yrs ago<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<a name='more'></a>In 185 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a star that suddenly appeared in the sky and stayed for just about 8 months.</div>
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The mystery is now solved after 2000 years. How first Supernova was recorded in history?? </div>
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Read more <b><a href="http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2011/10/NASA%20telescopes%20help%20solve%20ancient%20supernova%20mystery.aspx">here</a></b>.<br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-816165285060941932011-10-21T21:59:00.003+05:302014-06-05T21:47:34.982+05:30Do Cellphones lead to Cancer? .. Doubtful<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
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<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The biggest study ever to examine the possible connection between cellphones and cancer found no evidence of any link, suggesting that billions of people who are rarely more than a few inches from their phones have no special health concerns.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Read on <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/largest-study-cellphones-cancer-finds-no-223152789.html;_ylt=Avx9TuVJR4zzsS8U9L1PUJUjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTNqYm1yNjQ0BGNjb2RlA2N0LmMEcGtnAzc1YjdhYWU1LWEzYTktM2IxNS04Njk0LTc0N2Y2YjZkNmEyZgRwb3MDMgRzZWMDbW9zdF9wb3B1bGFyBHZlcgMyZjhkMTA1Yy1mYjhmLTExZTAtOGM5OS0yNzNjY2VmNzhhZWQ-;_ylg=X3oDMTFpcTZobnQ4BGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAN0ZWNoBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3">here</a></b>.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><b>"There are a lot more worrying things in the world than mobile phones"</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://salviblogs.blogspot.com/" style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;" target="_blank"> Back to Main Index</a></span></span></div>
</div>
s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-70945454239426650032011-09-09T11:24:00.001+05:302014-06-05T21:48:02.803+05:30Apollo landing sites on Moon .. imaged by Lunar Orbiter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>A collection fascinating photos covering Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites is now available in public domain.</div>
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured the sharpest images ever taken from space.<br />
Just one out of the many available images is reproduced below as a sample.<br />
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Read full details <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html">here</a>. <br />
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Even some ground tracks created by lunar landers are clearly visible.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhiD3Ejo6sbJqE3BC1MNlEs7T273zZMBWdhrAyOSeoTUApsmyGX6GCtt56IJOgz-vpfvovhxbxd-0IcFInM5NlCBX8SI-kXJO4LAWRFU17IEYWM_JHWoi0S6xjfWdbvMXjEfKGlDNqM70/s1600/lunar.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhiD3Ejo6sbJqE3BC1MNlEs7T273zZMBWdhrAyOSeoTUApsmyGX6GCtt56IJOgz-vpfvovhxbxd-0IcFInM5NlCBX8SI-kXJO4LAWRFU17IEYWM_JHWoi0S6xjfWdbvMXjEfKGlDNqM70/s320/lunar.bmp" height="303" width="320" /></a></div>
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-31478176487317376522011-08-24T21:38:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:48:57.951+05:30Meghatropiques .. French Satellite for study of Tropical rains and seas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>Megha-Tropiques (Megha =cloud in Sanskrit, and Tropiques =tropics in French ) is a joint Indo-French mission meant for investigating the contribution of the water cycle in the tropical atmosphere to climate dynamics.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisu-KA6499d4nv-7Uu9TjAQ6BBnbXc4Ni5c4fO3blR89RnjEbHf57IaZ1hnuVwmceztdmVi0TcUgXfEvLrwTAgV87BiXyDNOUPWwx5z7ji9p41oQVZumDfyUrUmIUzA4VSQAkFggqGsv0/s1600/tr2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisu-KA6499d4nv-7Uu9TjAQ6BBnbXc4Ni5c4fO3blR89RnjEbHf57IaZ1hnuVwmceztdmVi0TcUgXfEvLrwTAgV87BiXyDNOUPWwx5z7ji9p41oQVZumDfyUrUmIUzA4VSQAkFggqGsv0/s200/tr2.bmp" height="118" width="200" /></a><br />
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Tropics is the region between about 23deg N and 23 deg S around equator.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBusoKaziMeO1g0nrKj3daVFUWdh9qGMz6yttdjqwoAi7Xmsug6Haa9uL1Kw47Vj-1-PTapa-eu1-aSKINFvmlVY4qJp7XFLkrzLGfy8UZJYj0ZfKGvjZ4h7bblgDnTgOnPhVoTZgdGRM/s1600/trop1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBusoKaziMeO1g0nrKj3daVFUWdh9qGMz6yttdjqwoAi7Xmsug6Haa9uL1Kw47Vj-1-PTapa-eu1-aSKINFvmlVY4qJp7XFLkrzLGfy8UZJYj0ZfKGvjZ4h7bblgDnTgOnPhVoTZgdGRM/s200/trop1.bmp" height="200" width="173" /></a><br />
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This is the region where the Sun rays fall perpendicularly atleast once in a year.<br />
Region beyond these limits upto Poles are not so lucky.<br />
Hence Earth's atmosphere is heavily dependent on the atmospheric changes here.<br />
Therefore the Meghatropiques satellite mission was planned for monitoring the atmosphere in this area repeatedly.<br />
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Meghatropiques Orbit which has an inclination of 20° at 866-km height results in following coverage:<br />
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A repetitivity of more than more than<br />
<b>5 per day</b> between 13°N and 13°S and<br />
<b>3.5 visibilities per day</b> between 22°S and 22°N at each point .<br />
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India's ISRO and its Frech counterpart CNES ( Centre National d'Etudes Spaciales ) have jointly worked on this mission for last several years.
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ISRO has built the satellite and it would control the satellite in orbit and also receive, process and distribute the scientific data from the satellite, besides of course launching the satellite using PSLV rocket.
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The following scientific payloads are developed by CNES :
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- A microwave imager (<span style="font-weight: bold;">MADRAS</span>) aimed mainly to study precipitation and cloud properties, including ice at the top of clouds. (SSM/I type, with an additional channel at 157 GHz).
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- A microwave sounding instrument for the atmospheric water vapor (<span style="font-weight: bold;">SAPHIR</span> - 6 channels in the 183 GHz band).
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- A radiometer devoted to the measurement of outgoing radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere (<span style="font-weight: bold;">ScaRaB</span> type).
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More details can be seen <a href="http://meghatropiques.ipsl.polytechnique.fr/mission-description.html"> here </a>
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-86376326273669106602011-07-16T20:00:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:49:27.264+05:30Launch Video Notes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>A few points that interested me while watching the live transmission were
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4sRfhU2q4YVTQcMkDaSDLUrhaQJo5Et-wBRRpj_g8EMJUU_CXwyxOI6Uk_tShbsmH2AfE1okHcQRCHMzL2sei0rGIvPo7ZjVqQYjiE95DhS6zIkuQqVNElDfrMqq_KQi6YdHl9j5NiA/s1600/timing1.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4sRfhU2q4YVTQcMkDaSDLUrhaQJo5Et-wBRRpj_g8EMJUU_CXwyxOI6Uk_tShbsmH2AfE1okHcQRCHMzL2sei0rGIvPo7ZjVqQYjiE95DhS6zIkuQqVNElDfrMqq_KQi6YdHl9j5NiA/s400/timing1.bmp" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629974301307517202" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 271px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 400px;" /></a>
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1. All 6 strap-ons in 1st stage are not lit and seperated simultaneously. There are two sets .. 4 Ground lit ones ignite about T+ 0.4 seconds. The 2 airlit ones ignite at T+25. 1st set of strap-ons seperate at T+70, 2nd set seperates at T+92 secs.
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However the most interesting part was during last few maneuvers depicted in these screenshots.
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<a href="http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25379.0;attach=313976;image" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25379.0;attach=313976;image" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 311px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>
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In the end the last kink was interesting. In case of normal Polar Satellite launch the satellite is just released when the launcher is parallel to surface of earth at equator but here the requirement was that the satellite should be released at a very critically decided angle so that the spacecraft velocity vector and earth's gravitational field vector make the spacecraft to attain the highly elliptical initial orbit of 284kms X 21000kms. Therefore the spacecraft is first raised to about 300 kms and then turned groundwards. This not only brings it to the required injection angle wrt earth surface but also increases velocity very rapidly to the required injection velocity of 9.5+ kms/sec required for achieving the desired elliptical orbit.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzMovrVEsrEriOG7mkm8v7gYdAK-JTg3dKt4QWwy7ekiJYDi3V3rLrSCTnJPfp8yL3xsBHq009EqiIVxH_XiwN40KfjJ37cZNjZ51Qi5KiIay9LrGIpD3jKuwzR4ZHRq1xWWIRLOYlFE/s1600/last.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzMovrVEsrEriOG7mkm8v7gYdAK-JTg3dKt4QWwy7ekiJYDi3V3rLrSCTnJPfp8yL3xsBHq009EqiIVxH_XiwN40KfjJ37cZNjZ51Qi5KiIay9LrGIpD3jKuwzR4ZHRq1xWWIRLOYlFE/s400/last.bmp" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629991931073626690" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 288px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 400px;" /></a>
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Added instants at the seperartion of Ground-lit strap-ons (T+89 sec) and 2nd stage ignition ( T + 103 sec).
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj7D6klre1FgPjSAxHENFc-oiZA28IE9LOIiIvJPDYn7RZHgpMDHODJoXhyphenhyphenQ3dJj80yFqgPUlA5ZH1K3ps7AY435PgOnIbuoNmtqt2RKISH9VYlQoJnoCf6rhdgmiPrrMAm0Y5wCq_TjI/s1600/pslv+c17+89sec.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj7D6klre1FgPjSAxHENFc-oiZA28IE9LOIiIvJPDYn7RZHgpMDHODJoXhyphenhyphenQ3dJj80yFqgPUlA5ZH1K3ps7AY435PgOnIbuoNmtqt2RKISH9VYlQoJnoCf6rhdgmiPrrMAm0Y5wCq_TjI/s320/pslv+c17+89sec.JPG" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631383129421915250" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 141px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjShzmA1Vks1sat-6X78oR9rIwtmeYeWiNophPX_PtIAHKAjsktNC9SFFsN83bPD7JVOrMeX6VQCzhWC66dB3sf23aSK4jNtyUDyOt5m1E2a7be1XRuHaRqcnyX3XurBGXIvBRBI4SMMZw/s1600/pslv+c17+103sec.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjShzmA1Vks1sat-6X78oR9rIwtmeYeWiNophPX_PtIAHKAjsktNC9SFFsN83bPD7JVOrMeX6VQCzhWC66dB3sf23aSK4jNtyUDyOt5m1E2a7be1XRuHaRqcnyX3XurBGXIvBRBI4SMMZw/s320/pslv+c17+103sec.JPG" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631379055702110370" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 137px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a>
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I have added cursors ( Yellow horizontal lines ) at the following instances :
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GL Strap-on separation @ 69.9 sec
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AL Strap-on separation @ 92 sec
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PS1 separation @ 112.4 sec and PS2 Ignition about .5 sec after that<br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-62595206368188584362011-06-23T15:45:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:49:48.007+05:30Two new innovations to Charge Cellphones<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>A A4 paper size patch made of Piezo Material will soon be commercially available to charge your cell phone from the Sound waves produced by your music system. Go listen and dance to loud music and charge your cellphone !!!<br />
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Read more <a href="http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201125/7306/Orange-festival-T-Shirt-powers-mobile-phones">here</a><br />
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Alternatively Boil tea/water and charge your cellphone !!! <br />
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Read <a href="http://www.japantoday.com/category/new-products/view/pot-charges-cell-phones-by-boiling-water">here</a><br />
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<a href="http://salviblogs.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> Back to Main Index</a></div>
s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-18454610535141510832011-06-15T19:29:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:50:12.294+05:30Total Lunar Eclipse TODAY !!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Opportunity that comes once in several years.</span>
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The Lunar eclipse today is a total eclipse of the Moon.
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May be the most striking for years.
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The darkest since the year 2000.
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Unfortunately major portion of the eclipse occurs over the southern Indian Ocean as it passes through the central dark umbra of the Earth's shadow turning a deep Moon reddish-brown as all direct sunlight is blocked.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl27C54kJl9ty0To33t-MbM2hIXFX80U0U81UoVQpOMO6eM20DtHG7BElTqI5YBGsoEVDEcz5tYHTlJ48ipD0b2boxgYQdUVu52xwHDNRH1O6aXSKxq-krzhW9DktGU8ykf0P15joaolc/s1600/penumbra.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl27C54kJl9ty0To33t-MbM2hIXFX80U0U81UoVQpOMO6eM20DtHG7BElTqI5YBGsoEVDEcz5tYHTlJ48ipD0b2boxgYQdUVu52xwHDNRH1O6aXSKxq-krzhW9DktGU8ykf0P15joaolc/s400/penumbra.bmp" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619229865590027874" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 176px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>
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In fact, the umbra is never black it turns reddish due to the fact that sunlight is refracted and scattered around the edge of the Earth by our planet's atmosphere. A phenomenon similar to red sky at sunset and sunrise.
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The umbra is not illuminated evenly, though, since less of this indirect light penetrates to its core and the amount reaching different zones of the umbra is affected by varying atmospheric conditions. In particular, dust thrown up by major volcanic eruptions can render the atmosphere less transparent and the eclipsed Moon so dark that it practically disappears.
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Timings of events :
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====
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Today's eclipse begins when the Moon's eastern limb begins to enter the penumbra of the Earth's shadow at 17:25 GMT.
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Moon begins to enter the umbra at 18:23.
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Totality, with the Moon entirely within the umbra:
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Start from 19:22
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mid eclipse at 20:13
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until 21:03.
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The Moon's W limb withdraws from the umbra by 22:02 and finally exits the penumbra at 23:01.
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( All timing GMT .. for India add 5Hrs and 30 Mts .. eg 17:25 GMT = 22:55 IST )
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Don’t just read this.
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Go up on the terrace. Look to moon .. very rare opportunity boys !!!!
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Post Eclipse added the accompanying photograph uploaded by one of the moon watchers.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeEj4mVveu4WjtNU8esYmFmN4_TkaoixVbcU7liOn4D2kMWjVhN1UTf3eBh3siz7ZM612XvRCdl7rvFRgRthDv2lmMHbjjZ3tfsqarNs9PlzaptJov4jMqwPbYos0u6WofKt_An64mivQ/s1600/eclipse.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeEj4mVveu4WjtNU8esYmFmN4_TkaoixVbcU7liOn4D2kMWjVhN1UTf3eBh3siz7ZM612XvRCdl7rvFRgRthDv2lmMHbjjZ3tfsqarNs9PlzaptJov4jMqwPbYos0u6WofKt_An64mivQ/s400/eclipse.bmp" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619128786594859074" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 309px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 332px;" /></a><br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-17670233707745287262011-05-28T14:32:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:50:37.814+05:30Don't cry in space !!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>Tears in microgravity sure can be a hassle when you're on a spacewalk.<br />
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After stepping out to work on repairs to the Russian side of the station, Feustel discovered some of the anti-fog solution he had buffed on to the interior of his helmet was flaking off.<br />
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Read more <a href="http://news.discovery.com/space/tears-space-astronaut-spacewalk-110525.html">here</a><br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-3919441135300074342011-05-20T21:53:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:50:59.880+05:30world class underground laboratory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>World class underground laboratory to be built at Theni, 110 km west of Madurai.<br />
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A multi-institutional effort to build the unique Laboratory to study neutrinos in the atmosphere.<br />
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Read details <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article2030056.ece">here</a>.<br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-80182321544129822732011-05-17T16:12:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:51:20.816+05:30Two Flying feats in one week<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>An Aeroplane <span style="font-weight: bold;">powered totally by solar energy</span> travelled successfully from from Switzerland to Belgium after a 13-hour flight. A great achivement and a technological proof that it is possible to use solar radiation to power a airborne plane.<br />
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Read more <a href="http://in.news.yahoo.com/solar-plane-makes-maiden-international-flight-222635613.html;_ylt=Asj5b6DcPllPVga.uDSt2C3xscB_;_ylu=X3oDMTNwY2NpNzlqBGNjb2RlA3dlaWdodGVkY3QEcGtnAzU3OGY2MTY2LTBiZDQtMzgxZC04ZDlhLTU1ZGVjYWZhOWZhYgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDbW9zdF9wb3B1bGFyBHZlcgMxNjM3MDRiMC03ZGIyLTExZTAtYjZjNC1iMDBkNjE3MmNiMDY-;_ylg=X3oDMTFjYW9lY2s1BGludGwDaW4EbGFuZwNlbi1pbgRwc3RhaWQDBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25zBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3">here</a>.<br />
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And a <a href="http://deadspin.com/5800501/watch-the-jetman-fly-across-the-grand-canyon">man with Jet Backpack flies over Grand Canyon</a> !!<br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-49654168831115658022011-02-06T22:05:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:52:09.204+05:30Technology at what cost? Why solar electricity is not efficient in India?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a name='more'></a>There is big hoopla about eco green products. But is it really effectively followed or is it just blindly carried out to mislead the people and to get subsidies from govt?<br />
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Quoting from Deccan Chronicle dated 6th Feb 2010 .. an article by GAUTAM BHATIA, architect and writer who has built extensively in India and the US<br />
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<blockquote>
SOME YEARS ago, a Delhi firm invested in a "smart" building .. A 12-storey structure .. designed by a Japanese architect, using American and French technologies and built under South Korean supervision.<br />
This was supposedly user-friendly intelligent architecture at its best, technology's answer to India's future.<br />
I saw it on a sweltering June afternoon. Near the entrance, a remote sensor detected my approach and -through electronic identification -alerted the control centre inside, of my presence. Within seconds, the door opened. A complicated e-device worth `22 lakh had eliminated a Haryanvi guard at `6,000 per month. Further my weight on the lift lobby floor triggered six lifts into action; they all came racing down to pick me up. Activated by complicated circuitry that cost `28 lakh, the intelligent building had effectively done away with the need for a push button. Upstairs, the glass-shell of the building was surrounded by Japanese micro louvers and heat sensors at the ridiculously low summer discount rate of `2.8 crore. An elegant, electronically-activated "intelligent" device had happily eliminated the ordinary screen of reed chicks at `12 per square foot. Moreover, the smart structure, built at seven times the rate of a conventional building, had effectively done away with Indian skills and labour -still the cheapest in the world -and joined the ranks of world class architecture. Expensive, overdesigned and completely oblivious to local conditions. But smart, nonetheless.</blockquote>
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Clearly as pointed out this is a sheer waste of money ( after all the builder has nothing to loose, the owners pay for it because it is fashionable to say that we stay in a high tech Green colony. But if energy is wasted ( e.g. six lifts rushing down )then where is the overall green savings?<br />
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Solar Electricity is similarly an example of mis-utilisation of a very good concepts for monitory advantage. <br />
It is well known and almost universally accepted fact that the Photo Voltaic electricity production is very uneconomical but is non polluting, so the govt pays heavy subsidies for the propagation of this technology into cities and rural areas.<br />
But let's see what happens:<br />
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1. Cost : The Solar power generator ( as per cost details I asked yesterday ) is Rs 7500 for a 60W panel. <br />
Let's look at technical figures 60W is a misnomer in the sense that it generates 60W <span style="font-style: italic;">when the panel is pointed DIRECTLY towards sun in clear sky conditions</span>. <br />
If you look at the solar power installations ( Those lamp posts with a slanting panel atop it ) you will see that the panels are covered with dust and are pointing to the sun during some 2 months and that too for 2 hrs at the most in those months. Clearly you get about 50% to 55% of the rated power.<br />
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So you may be able to use such 60W panel for a 40W tubelight for 4-5 hrs everyday. But for that you have to Invert the 12 V DC output to 220V/50Hz AC. That means a loss of 10% power ( so power availability is reduced by about an hour ) in addition to about Rs 2000, the cost of inverter. <br />
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So such system would cost the end customer about Rs 10000 including installation and changes in the existing home wiring. A tube light, working on domestic power supply, used for 4 hrs a day will come consume 4Hrs*30 days *40W= 4.800 KwH, or about 5 units of electricity every month costing about 5units * 3Rs per unit = 15Rs in a month. <br />
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So to recover that cost you require Rs 10000/Rs 15 = about 650 months. We leave it to you to convert that figure into years because that approaches to a lifespan required to reach senior citizen status after birth.<br />
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2. Maintenace: The solar cell will give rated power only when the panel is clean. How do you ensure cleanliness over so many years? Moreover the panel's own efficiency of electricity generation starts dropping significantly after a few years making it uneconomical after 20 years. ( this is as per data published by manufacturers themselves ) <br />
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Then why everybody is propagating solar power? Money honey, money!<br />
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All over the world governments give subsidy to the solar power sector because it is pollution free. The biggest mistake that the government makes is that it subsidizes <span style="font-style: italic;">production</span> whereas it should have paid for <span style="font-style: italic;">Research and Development</span> and paid more for <span style="font-style: italic;">more efficient systems</span> so that there will be serious effort towards research in more efficiency than for more production and mis representation of products to get subsidies. <br />
E.g. Visit any big government installation. You will see on its compound walls wires running on top, warning the people to not to touch them because they carry " electricity generated by solar power"? What is so special about solar power ? subsidy naturally!!<br />
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There will be a small solar panel ( costing a few thousand ) somewhere in one corner but the subsidy is for TOTAL installation running into 10s of Lakhs of rupees. And of course there is a good engineering practice of 'redundancy' ... in case the solar panel fails to deliver power due to some reason then there is always a backup from main power and if that fails sometime then there is a generator backup. So, who is bothered whether the solar panel generates electricity or not?<br />
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This is an extreme example of how the subsidies work but then let businessmen do what they want to because it is their job to earn money.<br />
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Talking of efficiency : A Solar power producer ( an NRI, new entrant who recently returned to India, hence he had some openness to talk ) had put his product in one of the discussion forums for debate. <br />
I posted a reply to his article and told him that an addition of tracking system would make the system efficient by at least 30% and so the cost he would be able to reduce his panel size making it substantially cheaper even after including the cost of tracking system which would be fractional to the total cost.<br />
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His reply was, yes it will become more efficient but he would not be able to compete with others and the tracking system would involve a component of maintenance.<br />
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He has a valid point .. but then it is a vicious circle .. you will never put efforts towards efficient systems because the government <span style="font-style: italic;">subsidy does not increase with efficiency</span>. It treats all systems equal, so everyone would try to use standard ( read imported ) off the shelf product and sell it with an Indian name plate instead of doing at least some resaerch to improve efficiency. <br />
It is required therefore that the subsidy should be proportional to system efficiency. Or at least the subsidy should be reduced for inefficient systems when compared to best and efficient systems available in market.<br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-64517630762563902632011-02-05T16:38:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:52:33.317+05:30Asteroids, Meteors and their impact locations in India.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Earth and other planets orbit around the Sun.<br />
Smallest of the planets is Pluto with about 1700 kms radius. The largest is Jupiter with about 68700 kms radius. Earth with its radius of 6378 kms is 5th largest planet in Solar system. <br />
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But apart from these large planets there are innumerable number of very small size rocks. A majority of these are located between Mars and Jupiter. They vary in size from about 1000 km, down to the size of pebbles. Sixteen asteroids have a diameter of more than 240 km. Most probably Asteroids are material that never coalesced into a planet.<br />
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When any of these asteroid enters the Earth's atmosphere it starts shining as it hots up due to friction with atmosphere. This burning and brightly shining object is called as a meteorite. <br />
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Mostly the meteorites are so small bodies when they enter the atmosphere that they burn themselves out fully before they reach Earth's surface. So only a streak of light is visible and we call it as a Shooting Star.<br />
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BUT .. if the size is large then it can reach and impact on Earth causing depression and rupture in Earth's surface and the hot body of it burns the soil around its impact site causing a circular ring.<br />
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The small impacts are hardly noticeable but the larger ones create permenant depressions due to evaporation of Earth at that site. These are called as craters and large craters survive the weather changes and turn into lakes.<br />
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There are over 50 sites around Earth which are definitely known to have been formed due to asteroid impact. <br />
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Do you know that there are at least 2 major lakes formed due to this phenomenon?<br />
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Yes there is one in Rajasthan at Ramgarh and the other one is at Lonar in Maharashtra near Mumbai. Ramgarh has the Lake size of 3 Kms while the one at Lonar is just below 2 kms.<br />
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Lonar is seen in wikimapia at <a href="http://wikimapia.org/#lat=19.9764545&lon=76.5079308&z=15&l=0&m=b&search=lonar">this</a> link.<br />
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The Ramgarh can be viewed using <a href="http://wikimapia.org/#lat=25.333553&lon=76.624575&z=13&l=0&m=b&search=ramgarh%20crater">this</a> link.<br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-23795229349509585752011-02-01T16:18:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:52:54.742+05:30Which places are the best for Astronomical observations?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our cities are illuminated in the night for citizens' benefit. The vehicle exhaust and dust pollutions make the cities useless for carrying out stellar observations. That is the reason why we see only the brightest of the stars from our city rooftops.<br />
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The next ideal place for these observations are areas which are far from the light and dust pollution, like midst of the forests or top of remote mountains.<br />
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But which are the best places for astronomical observations in the world?<br />
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Stargazers have identified a few places : <br />
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1. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Channel Island of Sark</span> : Sark has no public street lighting, there are no paved roads and cars, so it does not suffer from the effects of light pollution in the same way as towns and cities do.<br />
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2. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park</span>, which became Europe's first International Dark Sky Park in November 2009.<br />
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For more details : <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110131073129.htm">Channel Island of Sark Becomes World's First Dark Sky Island</a><br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-45275697719528889952011-01-23T22:21:00.000+05:302014-06-05T21:53:18.526+05:30Two Suns in news<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is suddenly spurt in discussions ( read Fear ) about the Two Suns phenomenon expected 'sometime' in future due to the dying red supergiant star Betelgeuse finally blowing up and causing catastrophic results on Earth..</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">E.g. The Daily Mail/Times of India/Deccan Chronicle and other newspapers </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"> ( </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1349383/Betelgeuse-second-sun-Earth-supernova-turns-night-day.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1349383/Betelgeuse-second-sun-Earth-supernova-turns-night-day.html</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;">) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">have reported that there will be a Two Suns situation and people on the street are relating it to Dooms Day predictions of astrologers in 2012.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's apply simple rules of physics to see to What extent the phenomenon will cause changes to us. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. The time frame :</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No one can predict the exact time ( even to the nearest month ) because we just do not know the real dynamics at which the event will happen .. it is only a speculation that it will happen in 2012. It could be now or after 100s of year. The cosmic scales are awesome .. one second of humans corresponds to 1000s of years in the life of universe. So exact time tagging is just impossible.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. And is it in future???????</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The star is <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">640 light-years away .. so it takes about 640 years for us even to know if anything has happened at that place. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So What we see today has actually already happened 640 years early ( 2011 - 640 = 1371 ) so around 1370 AD.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore we can be sure of only one thing , that the star has NOT died upto 22Jan1371 .. ;) .</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Will it burn the earth? </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">( sorry for the choice of words ) BULLSHIT.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">The ( our ) Sun is about 8 light minutes away ( it takes 8 minutes for the sunlight to reach earth ). </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">Therefore if the explosion at Orion ( the constellation in which </span>Betelgeuse is located ) has to lighten up equivalent to daylight then the energy generated has to be ( using inverse square law ) [ {640years * 365 days * 24 hrs * 60 min } / 8 min ] ^2 times the energy released by Sun. about 1.8*10^15 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">i.e 1.8million billion </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">times ... a mind-boggling figure.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then what does it mean? </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We will see bright object but it will not be sufficient to illuminate significantly ... at the most something equivalent to moonlight in its early days of its brightness cycle ( a few days after new moon day ).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Naturally the heat delivered on earth will also be insignificant.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So astronomers will spend sleepless nights when that phenomenon occurs. It is their duty.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But for others? NOTHING. Nothing to worry for we commonfolks. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the way where is the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Betelgeuse star located? See figure below ( as seen from Hyderabad in south India @ about 8PM local time on 23rd Jan 2011 ) .. the star is one of the brightest star almost in the East. ( about 45 deg up from horizon ). Remember that the position changes very rapidly so don't expect to see the star at that place ... even on 23rd at 10PM it was below horizon.</span><br />
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s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736315222430397741.post-52211629317476744252010-10-07T15:49:00.000+05:302011-01-28T11:14:08.185+05:30About meWorked over 40 years in Space Technology related Engg job.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br />I joined Experimental Satellite Communication Earth Station , India's first earth station at Ahmedabad in 1969. It was later merged with Space Application Center ( SAC ) a part of Indian Space Research Organization ( ISRO)where I developed 3 Channel Monopulse Tracking, Receiver, Conical Scanning Tracking Receiver, HPA output Power stabilizer, Programmed Tracking receiver using a mainframe computer etc etc.<br />Participated in wold's first Satellite Instruction Television Experiment ( SITE ) using NASA's 'ATS-6' satellite and in Satellite Telecom Experiment Program ( STEP ) using European Satellite 'Symphonie'.<br />In 1974 Joined Earth Station Group at National Remote Sensing Agency ( NRSA ), Hyderabad. Apart from developing various subsystems was Operations Director for Cartosat 2 satellite. In this connection received appreciation award from the then Indian president Abdul Kalam.<br />Several countries were also equipped with similar Earth Stations and installed each of those stations. Also trained those countrymen of this very high end science and technology. <br />Also provided similar facilities to many users within the country.s^3http://www.blogger.com/profile/11417377517436636108noreply@blogger.com0