One of the communication satellites for Dish Network is Echostar 11. It was launched by the sea launch company on July 16, 2008. This communication satellite carries several Ku-band transponders to provide Satellite TV channels to subscribers.
Apart from Ku-band transponders, Dish Network installed Dish Earth camera in this Echostar 11 to deliver Dish Earth channel to subscribers. Let us have a deep look about the Dish Earth camera and the Dish Earth channel in this article.
Dish Earth Camera
After several months of testing, Dish Network installed the Dish Earth camera on Echostar 11 at a distance approximately 22, 300 miles above the earth. This camera was designed to capture many space objects including our planet and other planets.
Dish Earth Camera observes objects in the visible spectrum, similar to the human eye vision in a resolution of about 20 km per pixel. The image rate of this camera is one frame per every 15 seconds.
One of the important features of this camera is its two identical cameras. These two identical cameras are mounted in radiation-protective aluminum housing that placed on Echostar 11’s earth-face deck. Also, these cameras have 12mm focal length lenses. When looking at the resolution of this camera, it is approximately 25km/pixel and the output is 720 X 486 pixel NTSC.
Apart from these, this camera has 3 modes for image quality and rate that help to configure in Geo-synchronous orbit. One mode is configured to 400kbp/s which suits for clear sky, the second one is configured to 150kbp/s which suits for rain fades and the other one is configured to 25kbp/s which suits for heavy rain fades. And the images which are captured by this camera is saved in Echostar 11’s up-link facilities.
Dish Earth channel
As I mentioned earlier, the main purpose of installing Dish Earth camera in Echostar 11 is to deliver Dish Earth Channel. Dish Earth channel delivers exciting live views of our planet’s functionality to subscribers. Subscribers thus can watch the regular night/day cycle, weather patterns and seasonal changes that happen in western hemisphere through their naked eye!
Apart from watching our planet, subscribers can also watch the passing moments of our moon. Also the nearest planet , Venus and some unidentified flying object that flies in space!
Dish Network offers the photos of the cloud formations, storms, the green and blue beauty of our planet and more that are captured by Dish Earth camera to subscribers. Subscribers can present this extraordinary photos to their loved ones on special occasions!