Very interesting, Alex! Thank you for sharing that video.
73,
Mark N8MH
At 08:37 PM 7/14/2010 +0200, Alexandru Csete wrote:
Greetings,
I ran a simulation using the Celestia space simulator and could indeed observe a partial solar eclipse as seen from AO-51 :) I have recorded the simulation to a video and you can watch it on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ET8BhbqmVk
I couldn't find any 3d model of AO-51 so I used a model of AO-7 - sorry for that. Also note that I used TLEs from today to generate orbital data for Celestia so the time and may not be scientifically accurate.
If you want to run the simulation for yourself, watch from other angles, etc., you can get Celestia for free from http://shatters.net/celestia/ You'll need to add the data files for AO-51 in the "extras" folder; you can use mine to begin with. There is a .zip file here: http://files.oz9aec.net/video/SolarEclipse/
You'll also find the H.264 encoded video there that you are free to download (~100MB).
73 Alex Oz9AEC
On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:10:41 -0400 "Mark L. Hammond" marklhammond@gmail.com wrote:
Hello Masahiro,
Thank you for your message! You have made a great observation, and I think you are exactly right about the cause of the observed "glitches" in the telemetry. Usually at this point in its orbit we would observe AO-51 charging its batteries at a steady rate from fully illuminated panels.
From what I've read from page 43 here:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpubs/2010/TP214171a.pdf the eclipse was from 18:15 to 20:52 UTC. Look also at the areas experiencing eclipse.
Please be aware that the "clock" on AO-51 runs fast. It is now about 3 minutes fast, so look at telemetry timestamped from about 18:18 until 20:55 UTC.
Since the duration of the solar eclipse was 2 hrs 39 min (or 159 mins) and AO-51 orbits every 100 minutes or so, it could have been affected two times.
I've plotted some of the telemetry collected from that period (telemetry from 1800-2130utc) and posted it here: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/telemetry/ao51/2010WOD/July2010/Wd071100_1800...
And here's a screenshot of AO-51 at the time: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/telemetry/ao51/2010WOD/July2010/ao51_11July20...
73!
Mark N8MH
2010/7/13 Masahiro Arai m-arai@a.email.ne.jp:
Total solar eclipse was observed in southern Pacific Ocean at 11th July. I checked AO-51 WOD file. Total Array I shows glitch at 2043-2045z. AO-51 was located on east of Argentina at the time. Is this glitch made with solar eclipse??
AO-51 Wd071100 2010/7/11 UTC Â Â Total Array I [mA] 20:35 Â -2.111 20:36 Â -0.323 20:37 Â -0.323 20:38 Â Â 1.465 20:39 Â -0.323 20:40 Â 528.851 20:41 Â 321.472 20:42 Â 307.170 20:43 Â 183.815 20:44 Â 190.966 20:45 Â 176.664 20:46 Â 249.962 20:47 Â 300.019 20:48 Â 396.557 20:49 Â 498.459 20:50 Â 519.912 20:51 Â 729.079 20:52 Â 634.328 20:53 Â 936.458 20:54 Â 843.495 20:55 Â 948.972
WOD file ftp://ftp.amsat.org/pub/amsat/telemetry/ao51/2010WOD/July2010/Wd071100
AO-51 WOD decoder http://tinyurl.com/DK3WNsoftware
73
Masa  JN1GKZ   Tokyo Japan
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Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]