An ecliptic frame model predicts relative Sector 85 time changes within 0.005 seconds in eight Camera 2 and 4 test stars

We test a relative time change reported earlier for one TESS Sector 85 star. We compare QLP v01 and TESS-SPOC files for 32 other Sector 85 stars and eight Sector 84 controls. The data contain 430,440 finite exposure matches. All 16 sampled Sector 85 stars on Cameras 2 and 4 show large changes across one data gap. The changes range from -144.701 to -95.947 seconds. The 16 stars on Cameras 1 and 3 show no such change. A fixed sky vector fails to predict the differences. A model that rotates the spacecraft position from ICRF to an ecliptic frame succeeds. We record a follow-up plan before reading time columns for 16 fresh targets. Each fresh target uses its measured constant offset before the gap. In the eight fresh Camera 2 and 4 stars, the fixed nominal J2000 angle predicts 27,057 good rows after the gap with an RMS error of 0.002157 seconds and a largest error of 0.004870 seconds. An angle fitted only on the discovery stars gives a largest error of 0.003777 seconds. The other eight fresh stars retain near-constant differences. The test uses selected files and new targets at shared dates. It does not prove a software cause, validate an absolute clock, or establish a planet. The package contains all 80 native FITS files, source hashes, the numerical ephemeris, code, figures, result tables, and offline reproduction steps.

TESS · QLP · TESS-SPOC · Sector 85 · time stamps · barycentric correction · ecliptic frame · spacecraft ephemeris · data audit · reproducible research