Abstract
Photographs taken with the High Altitude Observatory’s White Light Coronagraph (Skylab experiment S052) are shown to contain information on the sizes and velocities of contaminant particulates around Skylab. Sizes as small as 5 μm (radius) are derived for particles as far away as 200 m from the spacecraft. The random error in the size derivation is about 30%, and no particle larger than 120 μm was observed. Transverse velocities are determined to within 0.08 m sec−1 and radial velocities to within 9 m sec−1. The S052 data bank contains about 3500 contaminated frames from which the nature of the Skylab environment can be inferred.
© 1977 Optical Society of America
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