Next Stop Venus

[diapason]

I noticed from the European Space Agency website that ESA TV will be broadcasting live on Astra 1G at 19.2 E the arrival of Venus Express at its destination about mid morning.
The parameters given are: Astra 1G, Transponder 1.108 (DVB - MPEG-2, MCPC), Frequency 12551.5 MHz, Polarisation Vertical, Symbol Rate 22000 MS/sec, FEC 5/6 Service Name ESA (Astravision) - So I think I'll try it.

[BGonaSTICK]

Channel names come up as "Astra Vision" and "Astra Vision 2" for me on that transponder at the moment.

According to the ESA site, 'Venus Express spacecraft will finally arrive on 11 April'.

That's next Tuesday. I'll certainly have this on in the background to see what's happening

[BGonaSTICK]

There is also live coverage of the orbit insertion here:

Tue, Apr 11, 2006 | 07:10 - 08:15 GMT | 09:10 - 10:15 CET| 08:10 - 09:15 BST

Eutelsat W2 at 16 degrees East
Transponder B5 middle, horizontal, Channel 5
F=11.151 MHz, SR=5.632 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

A preview of the event can be found here:

Thu, Apr 06, 2006 | 06:45 - 07:00 GMT | 08:45 - 09:00 CET| 07:45 - 08:00 BST

EUTELSAT HOT BIRD at 13° East (DVB/MPEG-2)
Horizontal, F=12,476 MHz (MCPC, Europe by Satellite)
SR=27,500 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

and repeated on the same channel on:

Sat, Apr 08, 2006 | 11:30 - 11:45 GMT | 13:30 - 13:45 CET| 12:30 - 12:45 BST

[diapason]

Hi there,

I have been monitoring the Astra 1G frequency most of today and still no sign of anything other than aa Astra test card. When I looked at Lyngsat, I did notice that at that frequency, the figure of 20000 was replaced by 3995 (but maybe that's because it is only carrying an Astra Test Card at present. I did try to punch in this low rate, but my little box didn't seem to take it. I might have to resort to watching tomorrow night's programme on BBC but it would be fun to receive it directly. Any clues?

Bill

[BGonaSTICK]

Just getting the test-card on the Astravision channels at the moment. The Eutelsat W2 transponder as listed above scans as 'News Equipe 11' but I'm only getting a very low and intermittent signal, not strong or stable enough to watch

[BGonaSTICK]

OK, live coverage from the control room now here:

For the general public:

Eutelsat Hot Bird 1 at 13 degrees east
Transponder 2
Polarisation: Vertical
Frequency: 11.242 MHz
SR=27500 MS/sec
FEC=3/4
Channel id “ESA”

[BGonaSTICK]

Europe scores new planetary success: Venus Express enters orbit around the Hothouse Planet

11 April 2006 ESA PR 13-2006. This morning, at the end of a 153-day and 400-million km cruise into the inner Solar System beginning with its launch on 9 November 2005, ESA’s Venus Express space probe fired its main engine at 09:17 CEST for a 50-minute burn, which brought it into orbit around Venus.

With this firing, the probe reduced its relative velocity toward the planet from 29,000 to about 25,000 km/h and was captured by its gravity field. This orbit insertion manoeuvre was a complete success.

During the next four weeks, the Venus Express probe will perform a series of manoeuvres to reach the scheduled operational orbit for its scientific mission. It will move from its current highly elongated 9-day orbit to a 24-hour polar orbit, culminating at 66,000 kilometres. From this vantage point, the orbiter will conduct an in-depth observation of the structure, chemistry and dynamics of the atmosphere of Venus for at least two Venusian days (486 Earth days).

Source: ESA

Further information can be found at their website here

[diapason]

Well they've arrived at Venus and I missed it as it seemed that there was nothing on Astra 1G. I will still have a go at finding Hotbird1 - I imagine it will be a little higher in the sky than the Astra ones at 19E and 6 degrees further west. Paisley in Scotland is 55 degrees 49.7 minutes North and 4 degrees 24.5 degrees west and the figures I found on one of these satellite position calculators on the Internet look like:

Astra 2/Eurobird (Mostly English Channels) Azimuth 151.66, Elevation 23.21
Astra group (German channels etc) Azimuth 162.04, Elevation 25.35
Hotbird 1 (Space news and other foreign stuff) Azimuth 169.42, Elevation 26.27

so I have to keep raising the dish gradually. - Will keep you posted.

[BGonaSTICK]

Yes, just a little extra elevation although you should get a slightly lesser signal at the same elevation you're at for 19.2E.

Just select a decent FTA Hotbird transponder like 12597 V 27500 BBC World.

Jimdefruit posted a useful list of 'tuning transponders' here:

http://www.satellitehelp.co.uk/forum...hp?topic=220.0

You didn't miss much on the Venus Express coverage. Just a little ripple of applause when orbit was confirmed

[diapason]

Found Hotbird 1, 2 and 3 today. Raised the dish a little, took it calmly and obtained a good signal on 13 degrees East. I then scanned the whole lot and now have about 900 channels to sort out between 28E, 19E and 16E. Great fun - and I find that the principal German stations, BBC World Service and CNN have turned up on Hotbird as well.