Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Sat, 15 Dec 1990 03:12:27 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <8bORf7S00VcJA2nk58@andrew.cmu.edu> Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sat, 15 Dec 1990 03:11:52 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #664 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 664 Today's Topics: ASTRO status at 5/21:00 MET Re: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [0400 CST] (Forwarded) Powerful telescope for sale Re: Another Russian first HUT Status for 12/08/90 [1100 CST] (Forwarded) BBXRT Status for 12/07/90 [1600 CST] (Forwarded) ASTRO status at 6/12:30 ASTRO status at 7/11:30 MET Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 8 Dec 90 03:50:16 GMT From: uvaarpa!murdoch!news@mcnc.org (Greg Hennessy) Subject: ASTRO status at 5/21:00 MET The ASTRO telescopes have settled into routine observations. BBXRT has finally fully aligned its Two Axis Pointing System (TAPS) and is taking observations on all of its scheduled objects this shift. Before the alignment was off a few arcminutes, which meant that the energy was not falling into the central pixel. The UV instruments attempted observations of 11 objecs, and were sucessful on 10, Capella being the exception due to the Instrument Points System starting its acquisition late. The procedures for ground control have not fully be worked out yet, and the teams are still getting used to this. Considering that teams did not simulate the loss of both DDU's, the preformance has been remarkable. Observations were acquired on Gam Gem, the Supernova 1987A, M31 (twice), the bright limb of the earth (to flatfield and calibrate UIT), HZ43, HD25443, and most excitingly, Jupiter. HUT was observing Ganynamede, while WUPPE was observing IO and the torus around it. There was 397 minutes of time scheduled, and 200 minuts observed for 50 percent. I include the updated chart: Shift Scheduled Obtained Percentage Notes 6 345 54 17 7 418 163 38 Startracker patched 8 429 189 44 9 428 247 57 10 36 8 4 2nd DDU died 11 343 187 55 12 397 200 50 A tenth day has officially been granted, and the teams have been instructed to plan for a possible 11th day. It is unknown when the decision for an eleventh day would be made. Isn't it amazing how good news takes up much less space than bad news? -- -Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA Internet: gsh7w@virginia.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w ------------------------------ Date: 10 Dec 90 00:23:53 GMT From: pasteur!dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!xroads!quark@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Jerry Rightnour) Subject: Re: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [0400 CST] (Forwarded) In: Astro-1 Shift Summary Report #19 4:00 a.m. CST Dec. 8, 1990 6/02:40 MET Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL [deleted text] During this time, the three ultraviolet telescopes focused on L2 Puppis, a red, semi-regular variable star located in the constellation Puppis. L2 Puppis is one of the first stellar sources to have water positively identified in its spectrum. Where would water be in a star? I thought stars were too hot for molecular structures. Does this imply water molecules in the space surrounding L2 Puppis? Jerry Rightnour quark@xroads.uucp -- \ / C r o s s r o a d s C o m m u n i c a t i o n s /\ (602) 941-2005 300|1200|2400 Baud 24 hrs/day / \ hplabs!hp-sdd!crash!xroads!quark ------------------------------ Date: 10 Dec 90 00:25:06 GMT From: fernwood!oracle!news@decwrl.dec.com (Eric Tilenius) Subject: Powerful telescope for sale POWERFUL 6" REFLECTING TELESCOPE EDMUND SCIENTIFIC NO. 85,086 * FOR SALE * * JUST $650! * This 6" reflecting telescope is wonderful for the serious amateur astronomer. It features: - 6" parabolic mirror polished to within 1/4 wavelength of light (that's accurate to within 0.0000055 inches!) - Clock drive / tracking motor to keep telescope oriented on objects as the Earth turns. - Will reveal faint stars to nearly 13th magnitude under favorable conditions! - 4' mirror housing (this is a big telescope!) - Can split double stars separated by only .75 seconds of arc! - 1" focal length Kellner eyepiece - 1/2" and 1/4" focal length Ramsden eyepieces - Mounted Barlow assembly w/ color corrected 2-element Barlow lens of 46.6 mm focal length - 6x sighting telescope - Heavy-duty no-rust pedestal mount and weight mechanisms - PLUS BOOKS on how to use & get the most out of it, and more! Excellent condition! A beautiful instrument! $650 includes everything listed above. You must come and pick it up or arrange for pickup -- too tricky to ship! Please CALL or EMAIL soon! DAY: 415-506-3175 EVE: 415-595-2049 EMAIL: etileniu@oracle.COM - Eric Tilenius ------------------------------ Date: 9 Dec 90 19:00:30 GMT From: rochester!sol!yamauchi@rutgers.edu (Brian Yamauchi) Subject: Re: Another Russian first In article <1990Dec7.162815.2035@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: In article <6616@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au> rxtgep@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Glen Pill) writes: >> Interesting to note that the Soviets have had a string of workable space >> stations, while Skylab 2 is sitting inside of the National Air & Space Museum. > >I always thought skylab was splattered over Western Australia. Skylab 1 got delivered to the Australians in pieces. Skylab 2 is in the NASM. (Yes, there was a second one.) I always thought that one was a mock-up -- are you saying it could have been an operational station? And to think that there is a real Saturn V rusting outside of MSFC... -- _______________________________________________________________________________ Brian Yamauchi University of Rochester yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu Computer Science Department _______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: 9 Dec 90 23:47:44 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: HUT Status for 12/08/90 [1100 CST] (Forwarded) HUT Status Report #7 12/8/90 11 a.m. CST The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope team just completed its first successful observation of a cataclysmic variable, Z Camelopardalis. Z-Cam is located about 1,100 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is two stars -- a white dwaft and a red giant -- locked in a stellar waltz by gravity. The white dwarf pulls material from its aging partner, creating a hot, swirling whirlpool of matter known as an accretion disk. In sudden outbursts, huge chunks of matter are ripped away from the red giant and drawn into the accretion disk. Z-Cam was not on HUT's schedule fo targets, but a recent outburst made the CV a high-priority observation. Amateur astronomers in the American Association of Variable Star Observers informed the HUT team of the outburst. Although astronomers have known for years that CVs have these periodic outbursts, the mechanism which causes them is not understood. When these outbursts occur, the CV becomes 100 times brighter than usual and emits such bursts of radiation that stellar winds with speeds greater than 1,000 kilometers per second blast particles of matter out into space in all directions. Knox Long, project scientist for HUT, said Hut's observation should help Hopkins astronomers better understand the structure of the accretion disk. The observation was important, he said, because CVs are a common example of how stars end their lifetime. Also, he said, accretion disks are common throughout the universe -- in planet information, in quasars, and in Seyfert galaxies -- so new information about them is valuable. "This is a good object to study, since we think we know more about cataclysmic variables than other systems with accretion disks," Long said. "We can observe CVs so much more clearly and understand their physics more easily than more distant objects," added William Blair, assistant project scientist. "So we can apply what we learn with Z-Cam to other objects." The spectrum HUT produced is of much higher quality than earlier spectra by the International Ultraviolet Explorer, Long said. "one advantage here is that we have a much higher signal-to-noise ratio, so we can study emission lines not observable with IUE." Also, Blair added, HUT observed Z-Cam in wavelengths below 900 angstroms, far too short for IUE -- or any other telescope -- to observe. Finally, HUT can measure the variations in ultraviolet light output on much shorter timescales than has been done previously. "I feel great about getting this observation at last," Long said. "I'm hoping we'll observe several other CVs before the end of the mission. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Dec 90 20:07:41 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: BBXRT Status for 12/07/90 [1600 CST] (Forwarded) BBXRT Status Report #06 4 p.m. CST Dec. 7 Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center "Fantastic," a smiling Dr. Peter Serlemitsos said. "We're doing great." Serlemitsos, principal investigator of the BBXRT, was commenting on the instrument's first detailed observation of Supernova 1987A. BBXRT locked onto the target at about 11:30 a.m. CST and observed the supernova for 35 minutes. Three earlier observation attempts had proven unsuccessful. BBXRT was added to the Astro-1 mission after the discovery of the supernova in February 1987. "The supernova is an extremely weak source," Serlemitsos said. "The only way we will know anything will be through through analysis of data after the mission." The data collected from today's observation will be analyzed at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, the control center for BBXRT. The instrument is continuing to perform extremely well. At the end of the night shift, the BBXRT was observing all its targets with high efficency. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Dec 90 19:37:32 GMT From: uvaarpa!murdoch!news@mcnc.org (Greg Hennessy) Subject: ASTRO status at 6/12:30 The telescopes on astro continue on their by now routine observations. The ground control of the telescopes is working well for all telescopes, with the possible exception of WUPPE. The WUPPE telescope is working fine physically, but WUPPE has the smallest field of view and is the most compilcated instrument. The latter means that many more commands must be sent for its operation, and this takes time, which cuts down the amount of observing time possible. The WUPPE team attempted four observations as primary, HD25443, L2PUP, Zeta Tau, and Alpha Orionis (Betelgeuse). Only the observations of Zeta Tau and L2PUP were sucessful. WUPPE did obtain data when HUT or UIT were primary instruments, on NGC891 and NGC1068, large galaxies,and IC63 a supernova remnant, all large objects that WUPPPE had no problem getting in their slit. HUT was primary target on the Sn1987A, NGC4151 (a Seyfert 1 galaxy), IC63, and NGC 1068, a Seyfert 2 galaxy. UIT was very pleased to get lots of deep exposures of these extended objects, and was primary observer on NGC253 and NGC891 both spiral galaxies seen large angles. NGC891 is almost edge on, and is expected to be much like our own galaxy. It is noted for haveing a large halo of hot gas sourrounding it. The biggest problem remaining is the problem with the shuttle getting rid of the waste water. Right now it appears that the mission would have to be cut short to nine days, or even eight, neither circumstance very palatable to the astronomers. There is another water dump later today, and it appears that the mission will be either 11 days with a sucessful water dump, or 9 days with an unsucessful water dump. More details will be made available when I get them. Listening on the loop gives a new rumor every 10 minutes. The current chart of observing time is: Shift Scheduled Obtained Percentage Notes 6 345 54 17 7 418 163 38 Startracker patched 8 429 189 44 9 428 247 57 10 36 8 4 2nd DDU died 11 343 187 55 12 397 200 50 13 350 181 51 These figures count only time obtained by the primary UV instrument. For example, the WUPPE observation of Betelgeuse was scheduled for 31 minutes, and since WUPPE obtained no data it was counted as zero observing time, even thought HUT got 31 minutes on this object. Likewise teh observation of L2PUP had WUUPE as primary getting 6 minutes, whle HUT and UIT each got about 25 minutes of data. For the shift, HUT got 67 percent of its data, and UIT got 66 percent. It would be hard to get much more then this. BBXRT is controlled from Goddard Space Flight Center and I don't know its values. -- -Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA Internet: gsh7w@virginia.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w ------------------------------ Date: 9 Dec 90 18:16:31 GMT From: uvaarpa!murdoch!news@mcnc.org (Greg Hennessy) Subject: ASTRO status at 7/11:30 MET ASTRO continues in routine observatons. Last night's shift had all instruments getting lots of sucessful acquisitions, and WUPPE made three long observations of its primary targets, the last instrument to acquire its primary observations. Last shift there were 256 minutes of scientific observations scheduled (a test of the engines called a RCS Hotfire took up about 3 hours of the shift) and obtainded 186 minutes, for a 72 percent. This is about as good as we are going to get, since I include a chard of the hops that the commands go through. The objcts observed included NGC 1851, M13, SS-Cyg, N49A+B, the Perseus cluster, Abell 665, HD37903, HD25443, and G70D8247. The current chart looks like Shift Scheduled Obtained Percentage Notes 6 345 54 17 7 418 163 38 Startracker patched 8 429 189 44 9 428 247 57 10 36 8 4 2nd DDU died 11 343 187 55 12 397 200 50 13 350 181 51 14 371 216 58 15 256 186 72 There is still no decision on the length of the mission. If it is only a 9 day mission, observing will stop in about 12 hours. IPS contingency Pointing Servo Loop ------- ------- ------------------ | IPS |<-----| MPC |<-----| APS |<------- ------- ------- | HAND-BRAIN-EAR | | | ------------------ | V | -------- | | AST | | | IMCS | | -------- | | | v ----------- ------------ | SHUTTLE | | SPACELAB | ----------- ------------ ^ | | v --------- ----------- | TDRSS | | SHUTTLE | ---------- ----------- ^ | | V -------- --------- | WSGS | | TDRSS | -------- --------- ^ | | V ---------- -------- | DOMSAT | | WSGS | ---------- -------- ^ | | V -------- ---------- | GSFC | | DOMSAT | -------- ---------- ^ | | V ---------- -------- | DOMSAT | | GSFC | ---------- -------- ^ | | V ------- -------- | JSC | | POCC | ------- -------- ^ | | V ---------- ------- | DOMSAT | | SOA | ---------- ------- ^ | | V | -------- ---------- ------------------- -------- | IMCS | | POCC | | APS | | | | STRIP|->| VIDEO |->| EYE-BRAIN-VOICE |------->| POCC | | CHART| | MATRIX | | | | | -------- ---------- ------------------- -------- -- -Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA Internet: gsh7w@virginia.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #664 *******************