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Kodak moments at Pluto: Help requested
john_s
post Apr 3 2008, 09:54 PM
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Hi folks-

We are deep in the process of planning the Pluto encounter (we're doing it now while all the essential people are still on the payroll!), and following the great success of our Jupiter "Kodak moment" program (thanks Hendric!), we are once again soliciting help from UMSF in planning scenic imaging of the Pluto system. Unlike at Jupiter, the only time when bodies in the Pluto system occult each other is within an hour of closest approach, when we'll be too busy for purely scenic imaging, but there may be interesting alignments or other opportunities at other times.

To help find these opportunities, Henry Throop has kindly made available his New Horizons Geometry Visualizer, NHGV, which is the science team's prime geometry planning tool. It's at http://soc.boulder.swri.edu/nhgv . The tool shows the view of selected targets from the spacecraft at any time during the encounter. Below is some more detailed information from Henry.

More information on the New Horizons instrument capabilities is available here.

We'd like inputs by early June if possible- thanks in advance!
John.

QUOTE
I have developed an on-line, graphical tool for planning and visualizing New Horizons observations. This is a web-based, graphical tool which uses SPICE to plot the position of bodies in the sky, and as they pass through the NH FOVs.

The program is online at http://soc.boulder.swri.edu/nhgv .

Features of NHGV (New Horizons Geometry Visualizer) include:

* Integration with NAIF/SPICE, allowing for accurate positions and observing geometries for planets, satellites, and spacecraft
* Integration with HD and Tycho-2 star catalogs, including access to catalog information such as positions, magnitudes, and stellar types
* Light-time corrections for all computations
* FOVs of all New Horizons remote sensing instruments
* Wireframe images showing position grids and surface lighting
* Albedo and surface composition maps
* Display of Jovian aurora and satelite flux footprints
* Lookup of spacecraft orientation and pointing from SPICE C-Kernels
* Output of all data in graphical and table format
* Flexible input and output coordinates, including both J2000 celestial and ecliptic systems
* Cartesian or spherical projection of sky coordinates.
* Simple web interface
* Observations for a single time or a range of times
* Rapid generation of tables of geometric parameters (distance, phase angle, etc.) over a time interval

It can be thought of along the same lines as Dave Seal's DIGIT or Mark Showalter's Jupiter Viewer, although it has advantages over both (e.g., full access to star catalogs; NH FOV's; web-based; ecliptic coordinates; simple one-page interface). Although it was written for NH, it's really a much more general tool than that. Kernels are currently included for Rosetta, Messenger and Cassini, in addition to NH.

It's used by the NH Science Team for planning future observations, and analyzing previous observations. This is essentially an internal tool that is being released externally on a trial basis, for use in planning potential NH observations. Please let me know of any significant problems.

Extensive on-line documentation, examples, and screenshots are available at http://soc.boulder.swri.edu/nhgv/gv_info.php .

Have fun!

Henry Throop
Southwest Research Institute
Boulder, CO
throop at boulder.swri.edu

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tfisher
post Apr 5 2008, 02:57 AM
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Here's pretty much the last chance to get a full Pluto (& plus Charon) by MVIC in framing mode with allowance for pointing error:
link

Question: are there any of the kernels which give sufficient ephemeris to go beyond July 26? I keep getting an error when I go past
that date...
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throop
post Apr 7 2008, 06:07 AM
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QUOTE (tfisher @ Apr 5 2008, 02:57 AM) *
Question: are there any of the kernels which give sufficient ephemeris to go beyond July 26? I keep getting an error when I go past
that date...


tfisher --

Indeed, right now our trajectory kernel just goes out to July 26. We have a new kernel on the way in the next week or so that may go out further out (but I'm not sure); I'll post when I've put it into NHGV. The new kernel will tweak the timing by a couple of minutes, but will be a minor change in the big scheme.

-Henry Throop
SWRI
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CAP-Team
post Apr 7 2008, 07:48 PM
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QUOTE (throop @ Apr 7 2008, 08:07 AM) *
tfisher --

Indeed, right now our trajectory kernel just goes out to July 26. We have a new kernel on the way in the next week or so that may go out further out (but I'm not sure); I'll post when I've put it into NHGV. The new kernel will tweak the timing by a couple of minutes, but will be a minor change in the big scheme.

-Henry Throop
SWRI


Henry, can you post a link to a decent .bsp file with the New Horizons trajectory? I've been looking for that on NASA's NAIF site, but with no luck
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throop
post Apr 8 2008, 06:42 PM
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QUOTE (CAP-Team @ Apr 7 2008, 07:48 PM) *
Henry, can you post a link to a decent .bsp file with the New Horizons trajectory? I've been looking for that on NASA's NAIF site, but with no luck


It's been requested by the mission that we not post the entire bsp trajectory online. However, send me an e-mail (throop at boulder.swri.edu) and I will put you in touch with the mission designer at APL, who will send you the spice files on an individual basis.

-Henry
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Posts in this topic
- john_s   Kodak moments at Pluto: Help requested   Apr 3 2008, 09:54 PM
- - volcanopele   I guess one quick one would be the last pre-C/A po...   Apr 3 2008, 10:31 PM
|- - john_s   Thanks VP and Doug! That reminds me of one mo...   Apr 3 2008, 11:02 PM
|- - tedstryk   The July 3rd pointing opportunity is good enough t...   Apr 4 2008, 12:05 AM
- - djellison   Same rule, with the 'kids' as well. http:...   Apr 3 2008, 11:01 PM
- - djellison   I was able to go out to the 26th for look-back...   Apr 3 2008, 11:32 PM
|- - john_s   QUOTE (djellison @ Apr 3 2008, 11:32 PM) ...   Apr 4 2008, 12:51 AM
- - nprev   I don't know if I'm doing this right, nor ...   Apr 4 2008, 12:24 AM
- - nprev   John, sorry to introduce another possible constrai...   Apr 4 2008, 02:29 AM
|- - volcanopele   QUOTE (nprev @ Apr 3 2008, 07:29 PM) John...   Apr 4 2008, 05:55 AM
- - claurel   Here's an alignment of Pluto, Charon, and Nix ...   Apr 4 2008, 03:43 AM
- - djellison   Ah - I was being stupid - plot RADIUS. (duhh) In...   Apr 4 2008, 07:44 AM
- - djellison   And outbound, it's on the 19th - if the sun an...   Apr 4 2008, 07:49 AM
- - volcanopele   Yeah, if this were the ISS camera on Cassini, thos...   Apr 4 2008, 08:07 AM
- - john_s   Thanks for all these! To answer questions, th...   Apr 4 2008, 04:57 PM
|- - nprev   QUOTE (john_s @ Apr 4 2008, 09:57 AM) Tha...   Apr 5 2008, 01:54 AM
- - centsworth_II   It doesn't make sense to design a craft so tha...   Apr 4 2008, 05:07 PM
- - djellison   I don't think there's any way to do that -...   Apr 4 2008, 05:28 PM
|- - Alan Stern   QUOTE (djellison @ Apr 4 2008, 06:28 PM) ...   Apr 5 2008, 11:57 AM
|- - vjkane   QUOTE (Alan Stern @ Apr 5 2008, 11:57 AM)...   Apr 5 2008, 08:47 PM
|- - nprev   QUOTE (vjkane @ Apr 5 2008, 12:47 PM) Thi...   Apr 6 2008, 04:24 PM
|- - mcaplinger   QUOTE (nprev @ Apr 6 2008, 09:24 AM) You...   Apr 6 2008, 05:08 PM
|- - vjkane   QUOTE (nprev @ Apr 6 2008, 04:24 PM) You...   Apr 6 2008, 05:09 PM
|- - mcaplinger   QUOTE (vjkane @ Apr 6 2008, 10:09 AM) Whi...   Apr 6 2008, 06:05 PM
||- - Pavel   Maybe we need a separate mission, which would be d...   Apr 6 2008, 06:18 PM
|||- - ElkGroveDan   QUOTE (Pavel @ Apr 6 2008, 10:18 AM) The ...   Apr 6 2008, 06:40 PM
||- - nprev   QUOTE (mcaplinger @ Apr 6 2008, 10:05 AM)...   Apr 6 2008, 07:49 PM
||- - mcaplinger   QUOTE (nprev @ Apr 6 2008, 12:49 PM) All ...   Apr 6 2008, 09:25 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (vjkane @ Apr 6 2008, 06:09 PM) Whi...   Apr 6 2008, 06:10 PM
- - tfisher   Here's pretty much the last chance to get a fu...   Apr 5 2008, 02:57 AM
|- - throop   QUOTE (tfisher @ Apr 5 2008, 02:57 AM) Qu...   Apr 7 2008, 06:07 AM
|- - CAP-Team   QUOTE (throop @ Apr 7 2008, 08:07 AM) tfi...   Apr 7 2008, 07:48 PM
|- - throop   QUOTE (CAP-Team @ Apr 7 2008, 07:48 ...   Apr 8 2008, 06:42 PM
- - tfisher   Here's a chance for an MVIC family portrait (P...   Apr 5 2008, 04:01 AM
- - tfisher   MVIC Pluto+Charon post closest approach: link   Apr 5 2008, 04:11 AM
- - john_s   Update on the timing- we'll be having a meetin...   Apr 7 2008, 03:19 PM
- - djellison   I'll sort out the 'first' and 'las...   Apr 7 2008, 04:07 PM
- - Juramike   How about a sequence of Charon sliding around Plut...   Apr 7 2008, 07:11 PM
- - Juramike   Same concept as above, but a bit earlier (starting...   Apr 7 2008, 07:38 PM
- - Juramike   Similar sequence as above (image every 3 hours) bu...   Apr 7 2008, 08:55 PM
- - hendric   Dang, you take a few weeks off UMSF and all hell b...   Apr 8 2008, 06:58 PM
- - dragonchild   Hello all. Not that anyone's heard of me, but...   Apr 8 2008, 07:30 PM
- - hendric   Here are some photo opps I found. It'll be ha...   May 9 2008, 05:34 AM
- - john_s   Hi Hendric- Thanks for that list- we'll check...   May 10 2008, 06:47 PM
|- - hendric   No problem John, the correct date/time is 2015 Jul...   May 12 2008, 09:05 PM
- - illexsquid   I hope I'm not to late to be useful, but I not...   May 29 2008, 10:58 PM
|- - helvick   Excellent first post. Welcome aboard.   May 29 2008, 11:22 PM
||- - illexsquid   QUOTE (helvick @ May 29 2008, 04:22 PM) E...   May 30 2008, 12:08 AM
|- - john_s   QUOTE (illexsquid @ May 29 2008, 11:58 PM...   May 31 2008, 12:31 AM
|- - tfisher   QUOTE (john_s @ May 30 2008, 07:31 PM) Co...   May 31 2008, 01:35 PM
- - lyford   looks kewl, and thanks for turning me on to the wo...   May 30 2008, 01:17 AM
|- - Juramike   QUOTE (lyford @ May 29 2008, 08:17 PM) ...   May 30 2008, 01:24 AM
- - nprev   Gotta be careful, though. Last time I said the wor...   May 31 2008, 02:58 PM
- - nprev   John, has the team made any Kodak shot selections ...   Jun 3 2008, 03:18 PM
|- - john_s   Nothing definite yet. We are having a "feasi...   Jun 4 2008, 12:47 AM
- - nprev   Sorry for the resurrection here, but this very thr...   May 14 2010, 11:59 PM
|- - illexsquid   When I read that article on the bus I so wanted to...   May 30 2010, 08:08 PM
- - machi   As well sorry for resurrection of this thread but ...   Feb 7 2014, 07:35 PM
- - nprev   \o/.…   Feb 8 2014, 12:23 AM
|- - john_s   Bear in mind that these big scans take time to exe...   Feb 10 2014, 07:13 PM
- - machi   Thanks for your reminders. As I understand it take...   Feb 12 2014, 02:19 PM


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