As described in one of my latest posts, today DSLWP-B has made a test imaging run in preparation for the solar eclipse on July 2. A series of images was taken just before the Moon hid the centre of the camera field of view and just after the Moon left the centre of the image, in approximately the same relative positions as for the July 2 eclipse imaging run.
The activation of the Amateur payload started at 05:30 UTC and the payload was commanded to change the configuration of the camera to use 2x zoom. The satellite was occulted by the Moon at 05:40 UTC, preventing the reception of telemetry until it reappeared at 06:16 UTC. The first series of images was taken automatically between 05:51 and 05:54, with the satellite behind the Moon.
After the satellite reappeared from behind the Moon, telemetry confirmed that three images, with IDs 0xD9, 0xDA and 0xDB had been taken. Between 06:29 and and 06:32, the satellite took the second series of images. Telemetry confirmed that these images were taken correctly with IDs 0xDC, 0xDD and 0xDE.
The priority was to use the rest of the activation to download images 0xDA and 0xDD, taken respectively at 05:52:40 and 06:31:10 UTC (when reading the times given in the planning post, note that the times listed there are the moments when the command is sent to the payload by the satellite, but the payload needs about 20 additional seconds to take the image). However, there were difficulties in commanding the payload, so half an hour was lost trying to command the satellite and only image 0xDA could be downloaded before the payload went off at 07:30 UTC.
Image 0xDA was downloaded without errors in a single transmission. It is shown below.
As we see, the exposure of the image is correct, so this image validates that the camera configuration can be used for the eclipse imaging run. Additionally, the image can be used to evaluate camera pointing and ephemeris errors.
As computed in this Jupyter notebook, the separation between the Moon rim and the centre of the field of view in the image shown above is 6.47 degrees. Using the camera calculations Jupyter notebook that I have shown in previous posts, we see that, according to the 20190630 ephemeris from dslwp_dev and my GMAT calculations, the angular distance between the Moon rim and the centre of the image at 05:52:40 UTC should be 3.25 degrees, assuming that the camera points perfectly away from the Sun.
The rate at which the Moon rim moves through the field of view is approximately 0.029 degrees per second. Thus, if the camera was pointing perfectly away from the Sun, this would indicate that DSLWP-B is 110 seconds earlier in its orbit that what predicted by the ephemeris, so that events concerning the relative position of the satellite and the Moon happen 110 seconds later than predicted.
However, one should take these calculations with a grain of salt. In my astrometry post, I showed that the camera was pointing 3.25 degrees off-axis. Therefore, it is convenient to assume an error of +/-3.25 degrees in the angle measurement done with the image. In units of time, this is +/-111 seconds.
So the data seems to suggest that DSLWP-B is one or two minutes earlier in its orbit and that the imaging times should be compensated by making them one or two minutes later, but there is not enough statistical evidence to support this argument. It will be very interesting to see image 0xDD, which will be downloaded tomorrow. The analysis of this image will give additional data.
In any case, so far it seems that orbit and pointing errors are within the tolerance given by the series of three images, which are taken at -1, 0, and +1 minutes offset from the nominal imaging time computed by Wei.
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