Is Skybox faking its satellite video shots?

[sublight_]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCrB1t8MncY

In this video there are shots 9 seconds in length in which the LEO satellite would have traveled almost 40 miles. Yet there appears to be little pincushion distortion or a change in the slant angle during these shots.

Anyone have a good explanation?

 

[Bill Walker]

A quick calc shows a slant angle change in those 9 seconds of about 14 degrees, assuming an orbital height of 160 miles AGL. Yes, that should be visible.

Since the photos are digital, is it possible that the photos have this corrected? Shouldn't be too hard to do, and would help an inexperienced person to extract info from a movie clip. "Faking" might be a bit harsh.

Or is it possibly the marketing guys making things a bit more flashy? Hard to imagine....

 

[sublight_]

It is at an altitude of 279 miles. There should be a keystone effect as the aspect changes, but since this is a fairly cheap satellite I don't image it would have the kind of optics that would do imagery at slant angles.

In the video they have a shot of Vegas and specifically market it as being able to analyze traffic patterns which is impossible when it will be over the target area for 10 seconds at best.
In the initial opening shot through the clouds the panning of the image slows momentarily and then continues, which you would get with an observation balloon and not a satellite.
The only shot where an aspect change is apparent is the Tokyo shot, but I cant tell if that looks like 14 degrees or not....

 

[Bill Walker]

At 279 miles the apparent angle change is 8.2 degrees. The correction could be done to the received pictures on the ground, with big heavy non-fllight worthy computers.

A year or so ago I was at a commercial web site, buying something, when the web site told me my order was being processsed "real time", and it would take 5 to 10 minutes. "Real time" means different things to different people.

 

[Michel Van]

Skybox Homepage http://www.skyboximaging.com

They using CubeSat for there imaging platforms, but not so much information which Cubesat in orbit are theres.

 

[ouroboros]

Really? I thought Skybox was using 100Kg class mall/micro sats, as their aperture was 15cm which exceeds a cubesats 10cm external dimension limit. Planet Labs is the one with cubesats, which should be released from ISS today or tomorrow after arriving as a nanoracks cargo on Orbital's Cygnus cargo run. They will be tossing 28 of those cubesats overboard. Though with the ISS inclination, how good will the coverage be, considering their resolution is in the 3-5m range compared to skybox's 1m, and they won't be in a sun-synchronous orbit?