CE-2 flyby of Toutatis Options

[Paolo]

I thought it was time to split the subject from the Moon forum.
Admins, can you move the relevant messages here?

anyway, just out: an interesting blog article by Bill Gray explaining how he recovered the probe and how he computed the orbit yielding the 13 December flyby date
Chang'e 2: The Full Story

[Paolo]

Chinese sources such as this http://www.stdaily.com/stdaily/content/201...tent_552959.htm acknowledge that the CMOS monitoring webcam has been used. the 200 g, 1024 x 1024 pixel camera apparently shot 5 pictures every second for more than 100 seconds around closest approach. The camera has a 7.2 degree fov.
I wonder whether any science camera picture was finally taken or not. from the timeline on the left of this picture http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/12/15/...269_634x422.jpg which yaohua2000 translated here http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=195772 I think it was not even powered on.
Chinese sources also report that a domestic telescopic observation and orbit determination effort was carried out on Toutatis. This was not strictly needed for such a well known object, but was still an useful exercise for an encounter with a more obscure object.