# Can solar conjunctions be prevented?



## music_beans (Mar 21, 2003)

I know this question might seem far fetched, but will people eventually come up with a way to avoid solar conjunctions?


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

music_beans said:


> I know this question might seem far fetched, but will people eventually come up with a way to avoid solar conjunctions?


No


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

music_beans said:


> eventually


Yes. It will involve a different technology that what we're using, but 500 years from now, they're bound to be doing something different.

To put it in perspective, the guy who was put in charge of preventing crackles and pops on AM radio ... invented FM radio.


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## music_beans (Mar 21, 2003)

:d


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## Tower Guy (Jul 27, 2005)

music_beans said:


> I know this question might seem far fetched, but will people eventually come up with a way to avoid solar conjunctions?


It is possible to make a satellite that is stronger than the sun, but that means that all satellite signals must get stronger too. This is because the strongest satellite can interfere with the weakest satellite due to the inability of the receive dish to reject signals from other satellites. Meanwhile the sun outage occurs for only one satellite at a time, so they could send signals to more than one satellite simultaneously to avoid the problem.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Like changes from regular standard time (ST) to daylight savings time (DST), and vice-versa, solar conjunctions (SC) occur only twice a year. Unlike the time changes, SCs, fortunately, last only a few minutes. 

So far, even with all of mankind's technological advancements, we have been unable to prevent DST, so what would make anyone think we could possibly prevent SCs?


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

Nick said:


> Like changes from regular standard time (ST) to daylight savings time (DST), and vice-versa, solar conjunctions (SC) occur only twice a year. Unlike the time changes, SCs, fortunately, last only a few minutes.
> 
> So far, even with all of mankind's technological advancements, we have been unable to prevent DST, so what would make anyone think we could possibly prevent SCs?


Well we were pretty good at preventing DST here in Indiana for years, but now thanks to a new govenor they've passed DST into law in the name of "progress".


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## Spruceman (Nov 21, 2004)

Could suggest some futuristic sci-fi ways to stop these conjunctions (extinguishing the sun, pushing earth farther from sol, a thousands-of-miles wide parasol), but the earth would be a cold, dark place as a result.


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## Jim Parker (Aug 12, 2003)

There is way of doing it that is a little bit easier than extinguishing the sun.  

Two satellite receivers placed about 250 miles apart in an east/west direction will not have the conjunction at the same time. Just run a fiber cable between the two locations and switch between them as required. However, this kind of defeats the whole idea of mounting a dish on your own house.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Are 110 and 119 far enough apart to not have the outage at overlapping times?
That would be my solution --- mirror channels that cannot be lost on both satellites.
Expensive, yes. Functional? For all the channels one could put on both, yes.
A good idea when solar transit is only a couple weeks a year drifting by lattitude? No.

JL


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## Geronimo (Mar 23, 2002)

It is God's way of telling us we watch too much TV. Take awlk. Read a book.


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## Tower Guy (Jul 27, 2005)

James Long said:


> Are 110 and 119 far enough apart to not have the outage at overlapping times?
> That would be my solution --- mirror channels that cannot be lost on both satellites.
> Expensive, yes. Functional? For all the channels one could put on both, yes.
> A good idea when solar transit is only a couple weeks a year drifting by lattitude? No.
> ...


Yes, 110 and 119 are far enough apart for the sun outage to affect only one at a time.

Actually, what happens to the HD NFL ST bandwidth the other 6 days of the week? If you used that for mirror channels you could cover quite a few SD networks 6 days out of 7 in the fall and 7 out of 7 in the spring.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

tsmacro said:


> Well we were pretty good at preventing DST here in Indiana for years, but now thanks to a new govenor they've passed DST into law in the name of "progress".


When "change" is inevitable, ben dover, spread your legs and enjoy it.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

If you are interested, see discussion in Potporri about Indiana and Eastern vs Central Time ...

http://dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=46044

JL


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## music_beans (Mar 21, 2003)

Maybe moving the satellites more northward?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

music_beans said:


> Maybe moving the satellites more northward?


A long way North. Solar transit occurs when the sun crosses through the arc in the sky where the satellites are located. You have to move the arc far enough that the sun never crosses that line.

JL


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

James Long said:


> A long way North. Solar transit occurs when the sun crosses through the arc in the sky where the satellites are located. You have to move the arc far enough that the sun never crosses that line.
> 
> JL


You can't have a Geosynchronous satellite North or South of the equator. We would all have to have motorized dishes that could follow the satellite.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

LtMunst said:


> You can't have a Geosynchronous satellite North or South of the equator. We would all have to have motorized dishes that could follow the satellite.


There are inclined geosynchronous satellites - not every bird is spot on 0° - but one cannot incline a satellite enough to remain unaffected by solar transit without losing geosynchronous orbit.

JL


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

One good way to "eventually" avoid solar conjunctions is when every home gets ultra-high speed Internet 2 access for the price of a lifeline phone connection. Then any content you want from anywhere in the world will be delivered through the regular packet system. Broadcasts, OTA and satellite, will be maintained only for those poor souls who absolutely can't get wired (ships at sea, distant lighthouses, that sort of thing), and maybe for the paranoid who don't want folks to know what they're watching. 

An aside, does the Sirius satellite system suffer from solar conjunctions?


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

A low-profile phased-array tracking antenna mounted discreetly on the roof could easily track migrating birds with an elliptical orbital variation of +12 to -12 degrees. Such an array would also hold a lock from a wobbly mount, or an unstable structure such as occurs during a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, or from minor structural undulations caused by elephant sex. 

According to scientists at the American Satellite Society (ASS), based in Luna Loco CA, the best way to completely avoid the semi-annual occurrence of solar conjunctivitis is to watch tv only at night.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

> According to scientists at the American Satellite Society (ASS), based in Luna Loco CA, the best way to completely avoid the semi-annual occurrence of solar conjunctivitis is to watch tv only at night.


Beat me to it.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Nick said:


> According to scientists at the American Satellite Society (ASS), based in Luna Loco CA, the best way to completely avoid the semi-annual occurrence of solar conjunctivitis is to watch tv only at night.


That is one smart American Satellite Society comment. 

But that is why most people don't notice solar transit. They are not home for it.

JL


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

James Long said:


> That is one smart American Satellite Society comment.
> 
> JL


Yes, that _is_ one smart ASS comment


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