Part 2 of Special Targeting: Obliques

Today we continue our tour of Special Targeting on the LROC Uplink team with obliques. An oblique view is any observation where LRO slews more than 30 degrees. A normal oblique for an LROC observation is 50-70 degrees. These obliques are different from our normal slews and extra special because of how much LRO has to move to acquire them. We are only allowed to take one of these every few weeks. When we do take them, they are a coordinated effort with the project and other instruments.

Welcome to the exciting world of Special Targeting! My name is Christian Alf, and I will guide you through this special adventure. As a member of the LROC Operations Staff I work on the Uplink Team, for which Zack gave an introduction. One of the responsibilities of an uplinker is to plan special observations. Don't be fooled, we love each of our 600+ images we target a day, but we dedicate a lot more time to a few of them. Typically, these observations require moving the whole spacecraft, coordinating with other instruments, or crunching some numbers to ensure the viewing geometry is optimal. There are five main types of special targets: Geometric Stereo, Obliques, Limb Views, Earth Calibrations, and Ride-alongs with other instruments. Since we target geometric stereo at a higher frequency, lets talk about them first.