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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Telescopic Observations _ Stratoscope Images

Posted by: tedstryk Mar 2 2008, 01:19 PM

I have dug a Stratoscope II view of Io from March 27, 1970. The original image was constructed from scanning 15 film images and stacking them (this was done at the time). UT time was somewhere between 0:15-2:00 (some of this would have been the time span of imagery, but part of the issue that creates the wide span here is contradictory sources. The phase angle was 290, if that helps. I based the reprojection at around 1:45, but I think I may have erred to the late side). I have posted my slightly enhanced version below, as well as a comparison with Voyager (the middle view is a degraded version of the Voyager view). Some albedo features are clearly consistent. I have also posted a link to a zip file where I put the image in the original form I got it in. There is also a stellar reference image. The resolution was determined to be about .1 arc seconds. The image is sensitive to roughly .38-.58 microns. Stratoscope II was a .9 meter balloon-borne telescope that took several flights in the 1960s and 70s (Stratoscope I was a balloon-borne solar telescope).

http://www.strykfoto.org/iostratoscope.zip

Posted by: tasp Mar 2 2008, 04:00 PM

Thanx for revisiting Stratoscope.

I only recall seeing one other Stratoscope picture, the one of Uranus. I recall reading the Uranus pic showed the rings if you knew exactly where to look (they were not noted at the time) but in any reproduction I have seen, the rings remain elusive.

Interesing to see an Io picture, particularly in comparison to a deres'd Voyager one.

{any Pluto picture in the archive for Alan Stern ?? [smile] }

Posted by: tedstryk Mar 3 2008, 02:10 AM

No, tasp, Stratoscope II only imaged Io, Uranus, and possibly Jupiter at high resolution (in other words, not counting the TV guidance system). Most of its planetary work was spectroscopic. I have found one passing reference to Jupiter photographs, but I have never seen any results or even any definite evidence of their existence.

Here is a typical version of the Uranus images shown.

Here is my enhanced version

Here is a version showing the orientation and where the rings can be seen. They were seen silhouetted on the planet, not against the black of space. Realizing it wasn't just an atmospheric feature or an artifact wasn't possible before we knew the rings were there, and it just happened to coincide with them (and didn't resemble any other features in the images).

Posted by: tedstryk Mar 3 2008, 04:27 PM

I should add that the Uranus and Io images were taken on the same flight.