[PLUG-TALK] DBS eclipse

Russell Senior russell at personaltelco.net
Sun May 6 20:40:13 UTC 2012


>>>>> "Denis" == Denis Heidtmann <denis.heidtmann at gmail.com> writes:

Denis>    I wonder.  In the absence of scattering due to atmosphere,
Denis> how can there be much light in the direction of the sun?  In
Denis> the direction of the earth is a different story, but I would
Denis> doubt the collectors are pointing toward the earth.  I expect
Denis> the question is how long would a satellite be in full shadow in
Denis> the case when it is in the path of a moon shadow.  -Denis

According to my calculations, a geosynchronous satellite is (around
the time of the equinox) regularly eclipsed by the earth for durations
of about 30 minutes (using physical parameters from wikipedia,
counting only the umbral period, ignoring the penumbral periods).  So,
they must have batteries sufficient to survive outages at least that
long.


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net



More information about the PLUG-talk mailing list