[net.astro] Voyager Uranus : now real-time photos

doug@escher.UUCP (Douglas J Freyburger) (11/08/85)

"So far, no structure has been seen in Voyager images of
 the Uranian atmosphere - no brightly colored bands or
 large storms as were obvious at Jupiter and Saturn...

 The Uranus encounter period has been divided into four
 phases: observatory, far encounter, near encounter, and
 post encounter.  The divisions are based in part on the
 size of the images in the field of view of the narrow
 angle camera.  The periods are:

 Observatory: November 4, 1985 to January 10, 1986
 Far Encounter: January 10-22, 1986
 Near Encounter: January 22-6, 1986
 (Closest approach to Uranus is January 24, 10a.m. PST)
 Post Encounter: January 26 - February 25, 1986"

Quoted from Voyager Bulletin, Mission Status Report No. 70.

Instead of space shuttle television, the monitors in the
cafeteria today showed images of Uranus as they came from
the Deep Space Network.  They were coming in every 5-10
minutes.  The photo is most of the screen, and there are
two plots on the right banner that give (I think) the pre-
and post- enhanced brightness spectra.  The photo flicks
in, and the two plot are drawn right then.  For the earlier
encounters, each image was through a different color filter
or at a different "exposure".  The "over-exposed" images
can show the satellites and some of the background stars
(used for navigational refinements).  Nice stuff to watch
during your lunch.
-- 

Doug Freyburger		DOUG@JPL-ROBOTICS, DOUG@JPL-VLSI,
JPL Mail Stop 23	escher!doug, escher!teleop!doug
Pasadena, CA 91109	etc.

Disclaimers: My opinions are not those of JPL, Caltech,
NASA, etc.  Apologies to companies I'm forgetting to quote
as trademark holders.  Net site JPL-ROBOTICS has its net
link down lately, so no mail gets though.