OSO8 A Detector Lightcurves

The Orbiting Solar Observatory-I (OSO-8) was launched on 21 June 1975 into a 550 km circular orbit at 33 degrees inclination. While the primary objectives of the mission were solar in nature, there were 3 detectors (the GCXSE detectors A, B and C) which had exclusively non-solar objectives.

The energy band was 2-60 keV for the A and C detector and 2-20 keV for the B detector. The spacecraft structure consisted of a rotating cylindrical base section called the "wheel" and a non-spinning upper section called the "sail". The GCXSE detectors were mounted in the rotating wheel and their fields-of-view were either aligned to the spin axis (B and C) or at small angles to it (A), hence they always viewed the portion of the sky at right angles to the earth-sun line.