That thing's been ratting around that little pocket for aaagess.. (well, more than 1000 sols anyway) I think RM mentioned it in another thread at one point.

Doug

In order thats MI, MI pulled away, APXS, Mossbauer. Cunning use of conjuncton time - big fat integrations on the dust capture magnets.

Doug

I was 18, got up early to watch some coverage on BBC 2 here in the UK, and then went to the LIbrary to download the early pans onto a floppy disk, take them home, and print them out on a 24 pin B'n'W dot matrix . Then, on a P60 (possibly with a 133MMX overdrive chip, can't remember) - trying to better line up the frames in the mosaics that were released...without much luck. I thikn that was the genesis of my image editing obsession.

Doug

The white grid on that image is 4m squares - and the lander would probably just about fit inside one, with the airbags poking out the sides of it. 15 to 20 HiRISE pixels.

Doug

That's a bit freaky, I was thinking "hmm - Pathfinder polar....I'll do that when I've had dinner" about 2 hrs ago.

Also interesting...
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02652
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01238
And especially
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00828
and
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01150


Doug

Or just a single shot colour camera like Mastcam for MSL



Doug

I've noticed a fair few registrations from lpl.arizona.edu - it's nice to have people prepared to 'spread the knowledge', it's a credit to a mission or an instrument team. HiRISE is going to produce so much, hopefully for so long, that it'll need a lot of eye to catch all the interesting features...hopefully this bunch of reprobates will be a part of that.

Doug

Well - we know where the light is coming from, we know when it outbursted....and we know how fast it travels...

So - as time passes - we are seing an expanding 'shell'. The cloud itself isn't moving (not enough to be visible at this time scale I don't think) ...what's moving is the bit of it that is illuminated. As that shell grows, we essentially get a 'scan' of the clouds, almost like a cosmic ultrasound.

Doug

I think that we're beginning to see a new generation and new genre of outreach for spaceflight that goes beyond the normal. Blogs, Podcasts, automated imagery pipelines. Some missions ( and fortunately an increasing number ) are embrasing this technology fully, sharing not just the headline results of a mission or an instrument - but going to the trouble of sharing the experience and the adventure of being a part of such a project.

As I mentioned in my glog week, HiRISE is billed as the peoples camera, and so far, on all fronts, the people approve. For going above and beyond the call of duty and taking enthusiasts, HiRISE gets my thanks, and the UMSF seal of approval....if there was such a thing

Doug
(PS - I think we had a "how old" or "who are you" or "what do you do" thread at some point....in the dark corner of the community chit chat forum somewhere - the 'sweet spot' is 25-40 basically. )

I love astronomy when it's something transient....the '87 supernova is a classic example - start observed in the nIR at the centre of our Galaxy orbiting the black hole that lives there being another...and this is a great demonstration of light, time, and distance....very cool. If they take enough images over time, they should be able to totally reconstruct the dust cloud in 3D.

Doug

That's a very early morning image, with the sun off to the right, and the image has been stretched quite a bit to get the detail of the ground to show well, so the sky has been saturated.

Some superb results from the PDS released Viking camera data - http://www.astrosurf.com/nunes/explor/explor_vik.htm

Particularly - http://www.astrosurf.com/nunes/explor/viki...03calstrech.jpg

Doug

Well - currently it gets to about -1 - I'm thinking -2 or -3 when it's finished.

Looking at Pete's efforts to image the shadow of Venus at a brighter figure than that, it's JUST visible....but over a 50+ second exposure, the ISS will cover 60 degrees of sky, so any shadow would have moved so much I really doubt it would be noticeable in imagery. Maybe someone will see it if their eyes are really dark adapted, but it'll be a tough call.

Doug

I've seen a mag -8 iridium flare cast a shadow. Not sure about the ISS though.

Doug

Just caught it going overhead....part built shedoffice at the bottom there

Doug

Polar....then for extra fun, a Phil-o-Polar

I've seen it through a 16" scope, and it was a small bluey-green ball - looking at the amateur obs of it, this isn't too far from how I remember it

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m213/me...ectspelling.png

But there is a whole variety from bright bright blue to near a turq-green in the images I've seen.

Doug

Perhaps rover orientation is only updated for driving/imaging etc at each new site number. I would have thought that they would use any and every orientation update possible ( and any sun observation would be able to do this ) - if for no other reason than good HGA pointing for uplink each morning.

Doug

Yes - there are things that are best done from the ground....but following the advance and retreat of an ice cap of hundreds of km's isn't one.

It's clear that we're talking about different things and an argument is brewing - so I'm stopping it here and now.

Doug

I agree, LIDAR obs during winter would be interesting, but during martian winter, Phoenix is going to be very very very dead.

And HiRISE can and will follow the advance and retreat of the icecap.....a job almost designed for MARCI which will obseve the site at LEAST daily, and because it's near polar it may well get imaged several times per day. An equatorial site, yes, HiRISE would struggle to image it regularly ( MARCI would still do so however ) but because it's near the pole the 'overlap' of the orbits is so much closer that repeated, higher res observations ( with CTX or even HiRISE ) will be much easier.

Doug

I'll just call them Jenson's.



Doug

Yes - that assumption presumes that any ice particle that forms will automatically sublimate in unsaturated air, yet if it's cold enough, it will not.

Doug

Well - technically, the second layer of insulation for the ceiling ( with a gap ) is a primative whipple shield

And yes - I think every red blooded, power tool owning male has 'the chair' which acts as tool box, work jig, step ladder, heavy weight, tea-mug stand, and....chair. It needs two paint splashes, a drop of expaning foam, one large dent and a couple of "oops - drilled too far" holes.

No one spotted the obvious mistake.....I've added some more batons tonight, there was nowhere for the panels that make up the far wall to screw in to at the top between the upright batons.....so I've added a few new extra battons

Doug

I have a sort of 1000 Sols pair of celebratory pictures - but I will be making them public on Monday Nov 6th - which is the date on which we reach the 2000th cumulative sol.

Doug

I see no reason why it wouldn't / couldn't be done with every tau observation which means almost every single sol.

Doug