Latest Picture of Comet Elenin, STEREO-B Will Capture First Today

Comet Elenin is now partially visible on Stereo B.




Latest Image.

reply to post by R0muLus


I thought so at first as well, but isn't this coming into frame from the wrong side of the screen? It comes in quite quickly, then seems to fade slightly - just a visual artifact from the Earth coming into view, perhaps?

What shal we do people, invite the aliens for a cup of tea?

reply to post by Peteos


Very odd indeed. It definitely moved onto screen between Saturday morning and Sunday morning, and is now gone..











And YES, tea sounds lovely. You suggest Earl Grey?

If you go here stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov... , input the dates 20110807 and 20110808 , select behind H1 , dislay images as slide show, and hit enter it will show images from those dates as a video clip. If you look at that you can see it move onto screen then off.





Heres an even stranger turn of events folks. Please take a look at that animation. @ 05:18 you can see the object begin to "back away" (for lack of a better term) still moving at 07:18, 11:18 it is gone from view and there is a bright flash of light, 13:18 there is the huge graphical glitch, and at 15:18 all is normal.

Peteos did point out that it's on the wrong side of the screen to be Elenin, and it looks like hes correct. So then wtf was that?

reply to post by R0muLus


I'm pretty sure it was Mercury. Just at the edge of the field of view. If so, it should come into full view in a day or so.

Elenin will enter the field of view on the left.

reply to post by Phage


Thanks Phage, that makes sense. Elenin should be coming into view soon as well. But what the hell caused that flash and glitch?

reply to post by R0muLus

Internal reflections.
It always occurs when bright objects enter or leave the field of view of the HI1 instrument.

reply to post by Phage


Sage Phage, newbie here - I thought the object already in view was Mercury? I guess it could also be Jupiter based on the Stereo A / B orbit viewer, my assumption it was Mercury was based on the handy illustration on the HI1-B page on Spaceweather. What exactly is the field of view of Stereo A & B anyway?

www.spaceweather.sflorg.com...

secchi.nrl.navy.mil...

reply to post by Peteos


The object already in view was Jupiter. There is a link on the stereo page that says "what planets are currently visible".

Thanks for the reply Phage, that helps.

reply to post by R0muLus


ty ty - I had looked for such a link, still can't find it!

reply to post by Peteos


stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov...

there you go friend. Scroll down and it shows all the "latest" images. Also, there is the "what planets are visible" link on the same page.

Using that and this orbit tool secchi.nrl.navy.mil... it's not too hard to determine the field of view. It seems it's always aimed at the edge of the sun.

reply to post by R0muLus


Legend - thank you for helping to alleviate my ignorance!

reply to post by Peteos

The field of view of HI1 is 20º.
It begins at 14º from the Sun.

reply to post by Phage


Thanks Phage; that's a lot narrower than I was expecting!

reply to post by BobAthome

None of that has anything to do with the topic.

who said i was done?,, and yes it has absolutely everything,, to do with the topic,,

How come Elenin hasn't shown up on the Behind "latest images" yet? Isn't it within the viewing range?