Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ New Horizons _ Eyes on Pluto

Posted by: alan Dec 18 2015, 07:41 PM

Looking at the replay of the encounter using http://eyes.nasa.gov/eyes-on-pluto.html I see two passes where LORRI is 'active' and pointing at Pluto but the target is listed as Charon in the first case (green) and Pluto Barycenter in the second case (red). I don't see either listed as images taken by LORRI in the http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/The-Flyby.php. Anyone know if LORRI image were taken at these times?

Posted by: alan Dec 19 2015, 04:23 PM

Oops, I wrote down the times but forgot to include them in the post.

Green strip, 10:23:02-07 UTC in Eyes on Pluto, follows the group of images of and around Sputnik Planum initially released back in July.
Red strip, 11:30:31-46 UTC in Eyes on Pluto, is between the two highest resolution strips.

If LORRI images weren't taken at these times or as a rider that doesn't show in Eyes on Pluto we have almost all of the day-side LORRI images, with just a couple of images in the gap of the highest resolution strip left.

Posted by: peter59 Dec 21 2015, 12:32 PM

QUOTE (alan @ Dec 18 2015, 08:41 PM)

I don't see either listed as images taken by LORRI in the http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/The-Flyby.php.

In my opinion encounter timeline is incomplete and the times of events are shifted back by about five minutes.
There is no information about the highest resolution strip (made by LORRI over a timespan of about a minute centered on 11:36 UT - just about 15 minutes before New Horizons' closest approach is Pluto - from a range of just 17,000 kilometers with resolutions of about 77-85 meters).

That's my analysis, whereby we can still expect to have 130 images.

07:17:48 EDT
New Horizons is taking 70 images of Pluto with LORRI from 30003.890 km away at est. resolution 0.15 km/pix. New Horizons is 31.8 AU from Earth.
(we have 64 images from 11:22:02 UTC to 11:23:50 UTC)

07:26:28 EDT
New Horizons is taking 130 images of Pluto with LORRI from 23859.780 km away at est. resolution 0.12 km/pix.
(none images taken about 11:31:00 UTC)

no information in the encounter timeline
New Horizons is taking 40 images of Pluto with LORRI from 17000.000 km away at est. resolution 0.078 km/pix.
(we have 33 images from 11:35:33 UTC to 11:37:15 UTC)

07:43:07 EDT
New Horizons is taking 67 images of Charon with LORRI from 34200.236 km away at est. resolution 0.17 km/pix.
(we have 12 images from 11:48:07 UTC to 11:48:31 UTC)