Time running out

ARISSat-1 is starting to come closer to Earth more and more each day. It is currently orbiting between 258 and 246 kilometers. Rough predicts have it re-entering in about a month. Many great images are coming in with all the ground stations listening.
The satellite should be entering a period of a mostly illuminated orbit during early January so this will probably be the last chance for stations worldwide to hear it and try to capture data or monitor audio for the various contests associated with the satellite. Don't forget to update your element sets daily for best possible tracking results.

Creeping back into Northern Hemisphere

ARISSat-1 is starting to reach the northern hemisphere just before entering eclipse. It should begin being much more available to stations in Europe, Asia and North America in the late afternoon and early evening in the next week. After that period, its orbit will slowly correlate to earlier times in the day. ARISSat is currently orbiting between 301 Km and 291 Km above the Earth.

Automatic capture site

VK7OO has setup a blog site that automatically captures and posts images received from ARISSat-1. The antenna is minimal so the quality of the images is not supreme but it is an interesting concept. Check it out at http://vk7oo.tasme.com/sstvsat/index22.html  and maybe a few more like this will pop up before the end of the mission.

First December image

This image captured by VK6FH in Australia is our first for the month of December. ARISSat-1 is currently orbiting a little over 300 kilometers above the Earth and should continue to do so for most (if not all) of the month. It will be most interesting to see the images captured right before the satellite re-enters so keep monitoring as we don't yet know when the last image will be transmitted.

ARISSat exiting eclipse over N. Hemisphere

The current orbit of ARISSat-1 has it exiting the eclipse over the northern hemisphere and thus does not become active until it reaches the lower latitudes. This means it should be fully active for the southern hemisphere during the day and part of the evening (until it enters the orbital eclipse). This image was recently captured by ZS6BMN.

Second SSTV image sent via transponder

W8ZCF and KB8VCO were successful in transmitting a picture and receiving back an image via the ARISSat-1 transponder. This image of a license plate was received on November 12, 2011 at 1908 UTC.

Separate MMSSTV software setups on 2 computers with mode Robot 36 were used to Tx 435.750 LSB up and Rx 145.930 MHz down. It was a challenge, over several days of trying, to find the satellite in a favorable position with its (inadvertently) shortened antenna. Doppler along with Tx and Rx antennas were manually controlled. [info from AMSAT-BB]

Is it Earth?

This image received by EB3SA over Europe looks more like a scene from a science fiction show or painting. The image captures the sun as it is rising over Europe and welcoming a new day.
Some postings are beginning to speculate as to when ARISSat-1 will re-enter but the guesses are still pretty wide. They range from December 2011 to April 2012. Should be interesting to see if it transmits any images just prior to burning up.

Techically interesting image

This image is not the highest quality one we have received but it is very interesting from a technical standpoint. This image was captured by PY4ZBZ and had a time stamp of 0926 UTC. It shows the edge of the Earth illuminated by the sun that has just risen over the horizon. Most of the Earth is still in darkness at this time. ARISSat-1 should have become illuminated about 0911 UTC. Given the time necessary for the system to activate and clear the safety timer (about 14 minutes) the earliest transmission would have been about 0925 UTC. That probably means this is one of the first images the on board cameras took shortly after entering sunlight. The image was then transmitted just after the transmitter went active and subsequently captured by a ground station (PY4ZBZ). Okay, a little luck played into all that technical execution but it is still fascinating knowing what went into capturing this image as ARISSat-1 transitioned across the terminator at an acute angle.

New month for new images

We start over today for the collection of initial images to be displayed on the AMSAT Gallery. This very nice image of some clouds was our first for the month and received by JAøCAW. I hope we will have even more to choose from this month with the satellite entering a period of greater illumination.

Minimal eclipse period approaching

ARISSat-1 recently lapped the International Space Station and will be in a period of minimal eclipse (greater period of being in sun) starting around Nov 9 through Nov 12. Ground operators with early evening passes will have a good chance of hearing and using ARISSat-1 around this time. Operating times should be good for stations worldwide during the mid day to early evening time periods. Give it a shot and show off to some school kids while you can.

Fewer images

It appears that the current orbit of ARISSat-1 being mainly illuminated during Southern hemisphere passes has greatly reduced the number of captured images due to less participants in that part of the world . Ones that are being captured are of a lesser quality that received earlier. The orbit is slowly starting to favor afternoon and evening passes in the Northern hemisphere so we should start seeing an increase in images. This image was captured by ZS6BMN.

Southern Hemisphere

Seems with the current orbital timing that folks in the Northern hemisphere are at a disadvantage due to the early morning passes being silent because the delay timer is not activating the transmitter until about 15 minutes after the satellite comes out of eclipse. For folks in the Southern hemisphere there are some excellent day and evening passes occurring for the next couple of weeks. Hope to see a few more images from Australia, South America, Africa and some of the equatorial regions during this time frame.

Couple of stunning images

I really like the Earth with Sun light glinting off the surface. The next image of the coastline is very nice as well. Congratulations to KD8CAO and SP8CGR respectively for capturing and submitting these spectacular images from ARISSat-1 over the past couple of days.

Starting to see submissions from some new stations and hope to see even more over the next few months that ARISSat-1 is predicted to be in orbit.

Did you also know that you can get a certificate for receiveing an SSTV image from ARISSat-1? Go to the ARISSat website and look under the FAQ for "reception certificates" and follow the directions.

Better quality images

Now that the satellite is rotating less the images are getting much cleaner. Here is a nearly perfect copy one of the default images sent when no other images are in the queue. Congrats to JHøGEV and his station for being able to get such a clean SSTV copy from space.

Clouds that stand out

This image captured by KD8CAO has some really nice lighting on the clouds and seems to give it some added depth. Uploads of captured images still coming in and the gallery has received over 1,500 images since ARISSat-1 was deployed. Keep them coming!

Earth or moon

If this image were in black and white then I might have thought it was a shot of our moon. Thanks to JAøCAW for capturing this image on Sep 6.

New for September

Since the number of wonderful images was getting a bit long, we started over for the month of September. The best images from August are still available by choosing "ARISSat-1_Aug_2011" under the display mission drop down menu on the main gallery page. You can always go to the archive to see everything but may need to select a higher page number for images that were published more than a few days ago. I expect September's page will be even bigger now that ARISSat-1 seems to have slowed its tumble rate and the fading is less of an impact to the images.

Amazing images still being received

I can hardly wait until some schools start trying to capture images as some great ones are being received by folks all around the globe. This image shows land mass and ocean will a few clouds and was received by IW2AGJ. Can you tell where in the world this are is located?

Daytime imagery

Images like this one are still being transmitted by ARISSat-1 during the day. Many midday to late afternoon passes will have several images being sent by the satellite. This image received by KD8CAO over North America has a nice sun glint effect.

ARISSat-1 continues to operate as long as the solar panels are converting enough energy to provide operations. This image of clouds was received by VK2DAG on Aug 21.

At least one instance of a male telemetry voice was reported and this occurs when the SD card can no longer be read. The system appears to have reset after that as follow on reports indicated the system was back to the female voice.