Kepler Mission Options

[ngunn]

Beyond The Cradle.

A well-deserved plug. I'm on board for Rui's mission.

While we're at it, don't miss Stu's Kepler piece at Cumbrian Sky.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

I'll second that... superb blog Ustrax !!! ( ... something completely different ).
Did I understand correct that the photometer was already turned on for tests, but the dust cover will stay on another fortnight?

[ustrax]

Thanks, having Stu on the crew makes it worth of a visit...
If you have any suggestions please feel free to e-mail be about it...

Phillipe, I don't know about the photometer being already turned on, it's possible, I'll try to check it today, but, for sure, the first light won't be acquired before the 26th, that's when the cover gets ejected.

[Syrinx]

Thw twitter feed states that the photometer was switched on for testing on March 9th.

Turned on Photometer for the first time. Planning to take lots of photometer initiation data overnight.
10:41 PM Mar 9th from twhirl

Also says the cover is still on.

Took lots of data overnight. Will continue 4 most of today. Mostly to watch things. Still have the cover on. It comes off at L+19 days.
11:02 AM Mar 10th from twhirl

[HughFromAlice]

Testing: The complexity of modern spacecraft is amazing. Glad they're testing! For instance, the detector electronics box which turns analog signals from the CCDs into digital data has more than 22,000 electronic components.

[Stu]

Planning on incorporating Kepler's mission into two Outreach talks next week, but struggling to find a good all-sky star chart showing which stars have exoplanets. Can anyone help out?

[Hungry4info]

Planning on incorporating Kepler's mission into two Outreach talks next week, but struggling to find a good all-sky star chart showing which stars have exoplanets. Can anyone help out?

The closest thing to that I can think of is a script I have in Celestia which marks the positions of known extrasolar planetary systems. But ... Celestia isn't the best tool for making all-sky star charts. I can probably make you an all-sky star chart showing the positions of exoplanets if you give me an hour or so.

All I'll need is a blank all-sky atlas.
Edit: Found one.

[Greg Hullender]

Interesting question.

The Exoplanets Forum might be a good place to ask: http://listes.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/wws

NASA's Planetquest site has some sort of 3d "New Worlds Atlas" but I can't get it to work in my browser.

http://planetquest1.jpl.nasa.gov/atlas/atlas_index.cfm

The exoplanets encyclopedia has a list of astronomers and groups working in the area. You could consider spamming all of them:

http://exoplanet.eu/people.html

(Or maybe just the groups -- there are a LOT of individuals!)

This table has the raw data (in the format of your choice), so you could plot it yourself, if you wanted to:

http://exoplanet.eu/catalog-all.php?mdAff=output#tc

And this site claims to be able to do interactive visualizations, although I couldn't see how to do more than query their database. You could ask, though:

http://nsted.ipac.caltech.edu/NStED/docs/holdings.html

Probably that's not better than what you found in your own web search, but I hope it helps.

--Greg

[Hungry4info]

I looked at the 3d worlds atlas at the Planet Quest site, and I discovered that it could not produce what was needed. It shows a 3d model of the solar neighborhood. Only stars with planets are included though.

[dmuller]

Early release version of the Kepler realtime simulation is now online at http://www.dmuller.net/kepler

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Interesting to find out where & when the Kepler Space Observatory will be "visible" from Your location:
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi
enter: Kepler (Spacecraft) as Target Body
and You'll find out the spacecraft is in constellation LEO MINOR

[ustrax]

If you guys have any question regarding the mission Jon Jenkins, one of the Co-Investigators, will be happy to answer it at Beyond the Cradle until March 26.
Here's the link.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

http://astronomynow.com/090309DavidKochInterview.html

[Stu]

re. an all sky map of exoplanet locations...

What an idiot I am! The answer was obvious and staring me in the face - Google Sky! I found a great website that has, among other things, a layer showing the locations of exoplanets ( http://stellarcartography.blogspot.com/200...ogle-earth.html ) and it works perfectly!



Well, I say "perfectly"... actually my computer is so old that it struggles with GoogleAnything; the video card is so prehistoric that it is no longer supported by its manufacturer, and the display of Google Mars/Earth/Sky freezes after a few minutes. So I'm "mapping" the exoplanet sky a few small chunks at a time, building up an atlas which will be really useful. A new computer is planned for later this year, then I'll be able to enjoy strolling around Mars like other people here.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Thanks for pointing out this blog Stu
Hope You'll have a new computer very soon...