LUNASCAN  MISSION REPORT:   Session # 20150904 – 08 - 90

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1. QUALCOM SYNOPSIS:

Fantastic, 70 minute imaging of the lunar western hemisphere. Some of the best views of Mare Serenitatis and the Appennines. The only downside was no WWV was possible. However a time fix was established by other means.

2. EPHEMERIS: DE421

Observatory: +37°34' +87°32' Tz:  0h00m

Date: 2015-09-04 02:26:02

Date (TT): 2015-09-04 02:27:11

(J2000) Right Ascension: 03h35m03.33s

(J2000) Declination: +14°04'25.8"

(Date) Right Ascension: 03h35m56.31s

(Date) Declination: +14°07'27.2"

Distance: 374694Km

Apparent diameter: 31.89'

Colongitude: 157.0°

Phase: 286.7°

Lunation: 20.48 days

Illumination: 64.4%

Sub-solar latitude: -0.5°

Libration in Latitude: +06°17'

Libration in Longitude: +06°49'

Position angle: -14.6°

Azimuth +58°17'

Altitude -14°31'

Rise:   3h48m

Transit: 10h50m

Set: 17h57m

Rise azimuth: +71°07'

Transit Altitude: +67°

Set azimuth: +290°37'

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3. DETAILED ANALYSIS:

Distance: 374694 Km; 222,000 miles

Apparent diameter: 31.89'

Colongitude: 157.0°

Phase: 286.7°

Lunation: 20.48 days

Illumination: 64.4%

My favorite missions are EMOR missions. Early morning imaging of the Moon provides a shot of the western hemisphere with lots of beautiful lunar features. I also love the morning atmosphere.

After analyzing Mission 89 I was a little disappointed with the darker images and contrast artifacts that had somehow crept in. Just getting through the analysis was a chore, with much difficulty seeing any chance of getting or seeing any anomalies or anything else of an interesting nature. But that all changed with Mission 90.

The mission had began at 2:26:19 on the Quad with a bang. The SSI camera (camera 4) was getting fantastic 400 power images of the Sea of Serenity and the Appennine Mountain Range!!! The 445 mile FOV on the Moon's 2,160 mi face was breath-taking. The SIMRANGE of the SSI camera was a mere 550 miles. Fifteen minutes into the mission and I pumped up the image with the Barlow cutting that in half, but the images were a little blurrier than I like, plus I like to have that FOV. Twenty-two minutes later I took the cam out of Barlow.

There was only one problem. Every once in a while, no matter how hard one tries, even with good weather conditions sometimes WWV just doesn't cooperate. At no time did we get the signal from Fort Collins.  Both 15 Mhz and 10 Mhz were tried. All we got was an unmodulated carrier. But thenks to having aircraft on channel 2 there was one transmission (although very weak at that) we were able to get a time fix.

During the SSI scan, at 9 minutes and 19 seconds, an aircraft was heard on channel 2. By checking the Quad recordings the same transmission was heard and the Quad time stamp showed 02:34:20, which was 2:34:20 AM. So anything worth documenting could be labelled by using that reference.

At 3:36 AM, one hour and ten minutes into the mission, the target was entering some tree limbs and the colors were greening up so we terminated the mission.

Very successful but no anomalies found.

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4. EQUIPMENT MODE LEVEL

RECORDERS
VHS1 on LIMA 2 (Quad)
VHS2 on LIMA 2 (VMA/LPI Cam on Quad Cam 3 position)
VHS3 on LIMA 2 (CabCam, color, Quad Camera 2 position)

VHS 4 on LIMA 2 Skycam (B Cam on Cam position toggle)

DVR1 on LIMA 2 (Q Sel)
DVR2 on LIMA 1 [default] (SSI Camera, Quad Cam 4 position)

QUAD CAMERA POSITIONS:
All camera outputs to Quad SAMSUNG SCQ-041P
Camera 1   B-Cam - (SC-NVA5), wide angle & A-Cam (SC-NVA5) 9x50 #51611 Celestron finder w/crosshairs)
                    Y=video   R=power
Camera 2    CabCam  cam 1 (color, SC-NVA5 to Quad), cam 2 (Sony CL-34S-2T, night vision, security, to Lab via RG59)      
Camera 3    VMA graphics/LPI not used
Camera 4:   SSI/C-8. .

COMPUTERS:
PC1 System
Dell  Intel Pentium 4 processor
2 Gigahertz, 256 meg RAM
C Drive, 40 GB
D Drive, 111 GB
Digital to Analog Converter 2: TEP-100 Elite Pro II 
Aperture video recorder DVR2
No graphics used
Feeding Quad Cam Position 4                                           

PC2 System

HP dc5000MT Pentium 4
2.8 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Digital to Analog Converter 1; TEP-100 Elite Pro II

VIRTUAL MOON ATLAS graphics left
Feeding Quad Cam Position 3

CAMERAS:
Camera 1
Celestron Neximage Solar System Imager
SSI or A camera = 2032/5=400x
No Barlow or focal reducer used
delivers simrange of 600 mi and FOV of 400 miles
CCD sensor (Charge Coupled Device)
Type HAD (1/4")
OPTICS, prime focus 5 mm
Active area 3.6mm x 2.7 (4.5 mm diagonal)
Pixel size 5.6 micron, square
VGA resolution (640x480) color ¼” CCD chip
Maximum usable framerate @ 640x480
(uncompressed): 30 fps
#11 yellow written filter
Compression 1420
?-Bit on-chip A/D converter
3 MP
Sensitivity <1 lux
ACOMP Computer

Camera 2
LPI (NOT UTILIZED THIS MISSION)
LPI or B camera = 2032/6=340x
CMOS sensor by Hynix ~310kPix, (Bayer matrix), Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Semiconductor Inc.
Meade Lunar Planetary Imager
Type HV7131E1 (1/3")
OPTICS, prime focus. 6 mm.
Active area 5.18x3.90 mm (6.5 mm diagonal)
Pixel size 8.0 micron, square
VGA resolution (640x480) color
Max usable framerate @ 640x480
(uncompressed): 36 fps
Compression 1420
8-Bit on-chip A/D converter
1.3 MP
Sensitivity <?lux
BCOMP Computer
Compaq Presario sr1218nx XP Home
2.67 GHZ processor, 760 mb RAM,
C Drive 80 GB hard drive

OPTICAL TUBE:
Celestron C-8 SCT 8” optical tube
2032 mm f/l
F10
Resolution at lunar range = 0.68 /
.81086 mi or 4281.36469 feet
(30.19' X 60 = 1811.4" /.68' resol = factor of 2663.82353
2160 miles / 2663.82353 = .81086 mi resolution)0.621 mi/km
1 m = 3.28 ‘

CONFIG:
(X)  SSI in scope back            
(   ) Diagonal and (   )  binoc viewer. Extended hand control DOB Driver II