Skywatcher snaps photos of stranded Russian Mars probe

msnbc ^ | 11/30/2011 5:53:06 PM ET 2011-11-30T22:53:06 | Mike Wall

[BenLurkin]

A skywatcher has photographed a troubled Russian Mars probe that remains stuck in Earth orbit three weeks after its launch.

Astrophotographer and veteran satellite spotter Ralf Vandebergh tracked Russia's Phobos-Grunt spacecraft as it passed over the southern Netherlands on Tuesday. Using a 10-inch (25-centimeter) telescope and a video camera, he snapped a series of images at a range of about 170 miles (274 kilometers).

"It was bright in my tracking scope, I think it was clearly visible (to the) naked-eye as well with sun at -6 degrees," Vandebergh told Space.com in an email. "Striking was a kind of reddish-yellowish color I saw in the tracking scope."

[BenLurkin]

[ClearCase_guy]

Data streaming from the Mars probe indicates that Mars is a blue planet and is teeming with life.

[BenLurkin]

http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/algoof.wav

[Imnidiot]

Good one!

[JoeDetweiler]

But not much in the way of intelligent life....

[DoctorBulldog]

ROFLMAO!!!

Too funny!

Cheers

[NonValueAdded]

LOL

[BenLurkin]

For comparison:

Fobos-Grunt transit stack, with lander on top, Yinghuo-1 encased in the truss, and transit stage on bottom

[BenLurkin]

[BenLurkin]

[af_vet_rr]

Data streaming from the Mars probe indicates that Mars is a blue planet and is teeming with life.

I've been laughing at this for five minutes.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Outstanding, CC_g. lol I’m still laughing.

[ExGeeEye]

Yeah— only three out of several million species...

...and only the third most intelligent species has any kind of obvious presence when observed from that altitude.

ZZ9 2ZA

[Steely Tom]

I found this hard to believe at first, but then I did a little math. At a distance of 170 miles, a 20-foot-long object covers about 4.6 arc seconds. The theoretical resolving power of a ten-inch telescope is about one-tenth of that, but this calculation (the “Dawes Limit”) doesn’t account for atmospheric turbulence, the effects of which are visible in the picture. We should see about ten distinct “pixels” along the length of the spacecraft, which is pretty close to what we see, IMHO.

[Pontiac]

But not much in the way of intelligent life....

Must have had its sensors focused on Congress.

[DustyMoment]

Phobos-Grunt

Really!!??? Phobos-Grunt??

Sounds like a psychological condition related to . . . . um . . . . . er, pooping!!

[JoeDetweiler]

Don’t forget your towel......

[ExGeeEye]

Knew I forgot something. Belgium!

[ExGeeEye]

Russian for Phobos-Soil (dirt, generic land).

Of course Phobos does somwwhat resemble a giant turd, but I’ve always preferred to think of it as the Great Cosmic Potato.