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Good video on the topic - there is a sun sensor on the dish - looks for the brightest object and orients to face it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbsHgE89qO4&t=340s



For all the distance Voyager has covered, our Sun is still the brightest object in its view? That’s incredible


Approx one light-day out. The nearest star is 4.2 light-years out.

Doesn't even matter if voyager is heading towards it or not, it's still crazy far away. Voyager is still on our doorstep as far as interstellar distances go.


The space between stars is truly immense. The sun is still 2,000 times closer to Voyager 2 than the next star


How bright does the Sun appear compared to other stars at a distance of 32Bn km?

Here is a photo from Voyager 1 at a distance of 4Bn miles:

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00450


Trying to see if I can work this out.

Voyager 2 is 160.7 AU.

Light falls off in brightness to the distance squared. So the sun will be 160.7^2 = 25824.5 times fainter for Voyager 2 than it is from Earth. (Since Earth is at 1AU)

The apparent magnitude of the sun from Earth is -26.72. Each step in magnitude is multiplying by 2.512. (2.512^5 = 100, so 5 steps of magnitude is a factor of 100).

log2.512(25824.5) = 11.0295.

11.0295 + -26.72 = -15.6905.

The apparent magnitude of the full moon is only −12.74 (lower is brighter). So for Voyager 2 the sun is still several times brighter than we see the moon. The sun is still many many times brighter than the next brightest star in the sky, Sirius, which has an apparent magnitude of −1.46.

Sources: Voyager 2 distance is https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/ all else is Wikipedia.


Superb! Thanks for the link.




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