Posted on 12/01/2014 8:55:31 AM PST by BenLurkin
And today (Dec. 1) comes a special day for Dawn — when it turns its cameras to Ceres to capture the asteroid, which will appear about nine pixels across. The reason? Besides scientific curiosity, it turns out to be a perfect calibration target, according to NASA.
“One final calibration of the science camera is needed before arrival at Ceres,” wrote Marc Rayman, the mission director at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a recent blog post.
“To accomplish it, the camera needs to take pictures of a target that appears just a few pixels across. The endless sky that surrounds our interplanetary traveler is full of stars, but those beautiful pinpoints of light, while easily detectable, are too small for this specialized measurement. But there is an object that just happens to be the right size. On Dec. 1, Ceres will be about nine pixels in diameter, nearly perfect for this calibration.”
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Cool. Its about time.
New Horizons will exit its final hibernation period in a month or so and begin imaging as it approaches pluto.
Space Ping!
Another humor thread for potty talk and cute quips....
Yeah, most all threads on here that have anything to do with space quickly devolve into 1st Grade type humor and just flat out stupid remarks. On a typical thread, MAYBE 30% of the replies will be serious or interesting/related to the topic at hand.
Not sure why this is the case. It can sometimes be really frustrating, having to skip past all of the ‘noise’. I wouldn’t even bother posting a thread on here regarding the 7th planet from the Sun(name intentionally omitted for obvious reasons lol). Those are ALWAYS the worst!
Yep, anything to do with astronomy/space quickly evolves into a romper room environment. It’s very odd and why I seldom will post or even read a thread on the subject.
Thanks left that other site.
Actually, I was going to post a link to Rush’ 2112 album.
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