I like how the targeting system tries to keep the center of the bright surface at the detector center. Once the Moon bites out a bit the "average" center starts to shift

Cool indeed! The slewing adds an odd sort of immediacy. Wish I could read Russian to fully enjoy the site.

OK, I will try to help you (Russian is close to Bulgarian and I almost have no problems):

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/info/tesis_20090723.php

According to this publication the culmination of the Solar Eclipse occurred together with the strongest magnetic storm in the past 7 months.

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/upload/files/kp_20090722.png

The green color on the chart means normal magnetosphere, orange - excited magnetosphere, red color - magnetic storm.

G1 is a very weak storm G2 - average storm, G3 - strong storm G4 - very strong storm G5 - extreme storm.

So according to the chart the storm during the Solar eclipse is close to G2 = average storm.

I'm also able to read: The storm was unexpected. The Sun is very calm now and there are no spots on the surface. In the last few days there were no coronal mass ejections detected.

Thank you very much, Z! Looks like the Sun is showing signs of coming out of this prolonged minimum, finally.

So great that they are releasing nice images and movies. When Coronas-F imaged an eclipse, images were next to impossible to come by.

And there's more! Looks like we have a LIVE IMAGE page entitled "Solnce Segodnya" which means "The Sun Now" in Russian:

Here it is:

http://tesis.lebedev.ru/sun_pictures.html

Several hints:

изображение фотосферы = image of the photosphere.

изображение магнитного поля = image of the magnetic field

изображение короны = image of the corona

изображение солнечного ветра = image of the solar wind.

изображение переходного слоя = ?? (don't know how to translate it properly)...

http://tesis.lebedev.ru/

I noticed that the main page has several important additions. The first one is "Прогноз космической погоды" which means "Space Weather Forecast"... There's information about
'Магнитные бури в последние 24 часа" which means "Magnetic Storms in the past 24 hours". If you see something like: "Не наблюдались", this means that there are no Magnetic storms observed. "Магнитные бури в ближайшие 24 часа" is a forecast for the next 24 hours. If you see "Не ожидаются" or something like that - it means that no Storms are expected.

This is the current forecast for tomorrow.

"Текущая активность Солнца" shows the current activities of the Sun. "Поток радиоизлучения" means "A stream of electromagnetic radiation" or something like that. The next two fields mean "Average planetary A-index" and "Average planetary Kr-index". I really don't know what this means. Maybe you will help me?

The next addition is "Группы пятен и активные области" - This shows the current status of the solar spots and areas of activities. If you read "Нет активных областей" this means there are no active areas observed.

But aren't those SOHO images?

Looks like the currently images are of SOHO. Not sure if this is temporary, but I hope so! They are very, very, very outdated compared to the images published on the official website of SOHO.

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/info/tesis_20090811.php

A summer without activities... This is the headline I may try to translate later

http://www.izvestia.ru/science/article3132137/

VERY INTERESTING! Koronas-Foton may be used for EARTHQUAKE FORECASTS!

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev...history_state0=

Google translate - don't have time to check for accuracy - following a shuttle misison.

Special thanks to a friend of mine on my own board!

QUOTE

recently, STEP began to observe streams of fast electrons emitted from the Earth's surface and in the absence of solar activity, and just where in theory they should not - at low latitudes.

Mildly interesting, but there've been many stories over the years about amazing breakthrough discoveries in earthquake prediction.

This is what I'm going to ask - is this serious or it's a topic brought out by the woewoes?

Well, if it isn't repeatable, it isn't science.
Let's see if they can reproduce these results. Better yet, let's see if they can issue an earthquake warning before a quake.

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/info/tesis_20090927.php

The instrument TESIS aboard Koronas-Foton photographed a huge solar flare. This is a spectacular image.

Wow, that's some image, great catch!

That is a great image, and a little way into the story there is a link to a 20 second movie from where that image originates.

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/info/movie/Tesis_20090927.wmv

(good catch Zvezdichko! and thanks)

Cheers

Oh, wow...first Stu's great HiRISE colorization, now this!!! That's a really stunning image!

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/info/tesis_20091104.php

TESIS observes active field 1029. This is how the field formed:

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/info/tesis_20091104_gallery1.php

A second gallery is here:

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/info/tesis_20091104_gallery2.php

Google translate here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev...history_state0=

BAD NEWS - Koronas-Foton is in Safe mode due to a problem with power supply

http://lenta.ru/news/2009/12/11/tesis/

GOOGLE TRANSLATE:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...2F11%2Ftesis%2F

I also have information that engineers are trying to restore power supply and turn on the scientific instruments, but these attempts aren't successful.

Yesterday I googled the Russian Google and came across this article:

http://www.rian.ru/science/20091211/198635487.html

They say there is hope, but all attempts to restore the spacecraft have been unsuccessful. The situation is very serious and the outcome isn't clear. Degradation started gradually.

This is disappointing .

Yes, it is. It's not a typical safe mode, but we have a known technical issue standing behind it, which is quite serious.

I remind you that the expected lifespan of the spacecraft was supposed to be about 3 years.

There's an interesting discussing going at novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru forum. As we already know: We have faulty chemical batteries, but the scientific instruments and the other components are healthy. Standart questions are being asked: Who is the contractor responsible for the batteries? Why did they allow the satellite to fly with such faulty batteries? Who is to blame? After all, a reader says, SOHO was launched in 1996 and still works, it's the same situation with STEREO and HINODE.

There is a possibility, another reader says, that the batteries are OK, but a sensor has faltered.

Another reader offers that a system should be built so we could collect faulty satellites and return them to the Earth Why not on-orbit repair, I should ask

Very, very interesting forum, too bad my spoken Russian isn't fluent

Russia loses contact with Koronas-Foton


http://tesis.lebedev.ru/status.html

Russia has announced that Koronas-Foton no longer communicates with Earth since 11th December.

Engineers will try to communicate with the satellite on Monday because the solar batteries will be well lit then.

http://www.sat-nd.com/

Koronas-Foton silent after problems with power supply
13 Dec 2009 - The scientific payload aboard Russia's solar research satellite Koronas-Foton was switched off owing to power supply problems on 1 December, Novosti news agency reported. Contact with the spacecraft was subsequently lost, and chances of a recovery are said to be slim

This is terrible to hear.
Of curiosity, does Koronas-Foton have anything in common with Fobos-Grunt? Any similar systems that could need to be checked as a result of this?

I can't confirm that the chemical batteries are made by the same manifacturer. True or false, they should be checked and tested before launching PG

Terrible news.

awwwww bad news

We still have SDO launching in a couple of months as long as it doesn't get delayed again.

SDO has a very friendly Facebook chatter and IIRC according to him it is probably going to be the last delay. We have the rocket.

That is unfortunate. I am reminded of a similar mission ending failure on Seasat after a few months operation some 30 years ago. It was also a power system problem. Space is hard and unforgiving of mistakes.

I'm still having problems coming to terms with this failure. How depressing that the (apparent) loss of this fine instrument is due to the use of dodgy batteries, a well-established technology that should by now be rock-solid and present a near-zero risk.

I hope they pin-point the fault, then nail the guilty party (sub-contractor). Hang 'em high and let them serve as a lesson to others

To give the KF team their due: Project management/complex product development is very difficult. Spaceflight is an order of magnitude or more so. Sometimes the miracle is that it ever worked at all; sometimes the real payoff is the lessons learned.

I have my explaination why this happened, but I'm not sure this is the right place to share (involves political and economy issues).

Anyway, I'm giving a facebook account if anybody wants to go into a detailed discussion with me: www.facebook.com/svetoslav

After all, I'm again disturbed by the fact that Roscosmos and most of the official several sites are silent - just like after the delay of Phobos-Grunt.

You're not sure if you should mention politics. Really?

Koronas-Foton returns to life!

http://www.izvestia.ru/news/news226795

Anatoly Perminov cautiously announces that we finally have information (this probably means a signal) from Koronas-Foton. It's too early to talk about restoration of the scientific mission because the batteries need to be charged. According to plans the scientific instruments should be turned on during the first days of January.

Fingers crossed, Koronas-Foton! If true, this is a true miracle!

That's incredible news

I'd like to advice you to wait for an official confirmation - TESIS website announced earlier today that there's still no communication. I'm not sure if IZVESTIA is a credible source.

Which is why you posted to the forum with the headline 'Koronas-Foton returns to life!'

You should take your own advice.

Yes, you are right, I should check my sources when I post. However I was too excited, forgive me

But... no matter what happened, I'm even more excited now... Because we have official confirmation!

http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=8777

Roscosmos officially announces that there is communication with Koronas-Foton!

Great news!

Great news indeed! Will be interesting to see the details of the recovery & fault analysis.

Doh! Look what I found out here:

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/status.html

30th december 2009

Today we had the last meeting of the GOGU (Which is the Lead Operation Team). According to them they couldn't confirm yesterday's announce of Roscosmos about the restoration of Koronas-Foton. The satellite continues being in its previous state and the last contact occured on 10th of december.

Log of the events (English, Google translate):

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=b...u%2Fstatus.html

How utterly bizarre. Does this mean Roscosmos should no longer be considered a credible source?

I really don't know how to comment this. My personal opinion is that there is some kind of miscommunication between Koronas-Foton engineering team and Perminov.

http://tesis.lebedev.ru/info/tesis_20100118.php

Koronas-Foton entered the orbit with a maximum illumination, but engineers were unable to restore the performance of the spacecraft. TESIS team confirms that there is no radio link with the spacecraft since December 11th 2009. Actually, they are not talking about "restoring the science program". They are talking about obtaining a radio signal from the spacecraft. Koronas-Foton is silent.

There's still no explaination why Roscosmos (specifically its head Anatoly Perminov) told us that engineers have restored the functionality of Koronas-Foton and there is a radio link between the spacecraft and Earth controllers.

I also don't have any good explanation.
But think about: when was the last time you heard any bad news from official Roscosmos sources?

The answer to your question is: When Phonos-Grunt got delayed for two years. It wasn't announced on the front page, but it's still on the website of Roscosmos - though on a well hidden page.