I'm thinking out loud here - but I wonder if sequence could be written where by Navcam goes cloud watching and when it identifies something - then Pancam cycles L2-5-7-2-5-7-2-5-7-2-5-7 looking at the same spot, and essentially uses the motion of the clouds as a push-frame technique for colour imaging....it's a thought isn't it

Doug

Well - hopefully it's 'on' tonight....

A lot of the questions are a bit mer-general and not very pancamey, and seing as these are Pancam updates........... - you get the idea.

I'll try and squeeze a few of these in, and then freestyle it from there

Doug

Distortion induced by off nadir imaging?

Doug

Anyone figured out an Imagmagik command line to take one of the huge jpgs and just slice it into say 2000 x 2000 pixel JPG chunks?

Doug

As you say, I have been a little reluctant to 'spread the word' partly because I don't like to trumpet blow, and partly because I've always been concerned that loonies such as the hoaxlanderati etc would start visiting.

I'm sort of resigned to the fact that if they're coming, they'll be here no matter what level of awareness there is. Their numbers resolve to barely noise compared to the 3 or 4 attempted spam registrations per day so it really doesn't bother me. We have a team of admins that circles the globe just about (in a DSN station sort of way) so if loonies post ( and they have in the past ) it is usually picked up by a admin/mod or a member reports it and we sweep up the mess quite rapidly.

With all that in mind, whilst I agree, at first I thought "hmm - wiki entry...not a good idea" - in actual fact there is no real negative purpose it could serve and as such, it'd be a nice thing to have in some respects. But, as I said previously, while I'd be happy to answer questions and provide the basic info about the origins of the place and so on, I'd rather not actually write it myself because that's just pure egomania.

Doug

Minor planet would make a lot more sense than 'dwarf' planet - but neither is appropriate for a class of body that hasn't 'cleaned up' it's area. That would be like calling anyone who lives in a block of apartments a dwarf human.

Doug

Realistically, you need to be using the uncompressed data - not raw JPG's complete with compression artifacts.

The analogy with planetary imaging with a webcam doesn't hold too well. The reason one takes hundreds of images is because within those hundreds there will be perhaps a dozen frames of near perfect 'seing' where just for a moment the column mass of air was not screwing the image quite so much.

With surface-to-surface imaging such as these super-res sequences, that's not the case - every frame you aquire is a 'good' one so you don't need hundreds of images.

What might be interesting is to compare one of these sequences ( given that the early Olympia outcrop super reses from the early 700's is on the PDS now ) - and try it with the JPG's - the RAD's and then compare to the Pancam teams efforts - http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_ins...t/superres.html

Doug

Two from the fab-four (Husband Hill and Duck Bay), not sure about any other UMSF 'team work' images though

Doug

Yup - a few frames to the right for Yogi.

AND - that was pre reretract of the airbags.

Doug

The possibility is there, and if MODY dropped out of the Martian sky tomorrow, I imagine it's a posibility that might become a reality - but for now, MODY does all the relay that MER really needs and MRO's primary science mission is more of a priority than MER relay.

Doug

Early Nov - a UHF relay test with Spirit.

Cool

Doug

I pulled out day-by-day stats from the couple of weeks before, the week of, and week after....nothing that would be considered anything other than statistical noise.


Doug

Yup - they would have been part of the 'Sol 1 postcard' that was infact succesfully taken in full by Opportunity before that first Odyssey pass, but Spirit ran out of time before the sequence timed out and the Odyssey pass started. I am always fond of images that show things in a raw 'off the press' way. If that means compression artifacts, dodgy colours, bad mosaics etc... The only mars picture I've ever actually framed is this one
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/ops/80839_full.jpg

It's horrid - but I love it

Doug

Well - my home town of Leicester isn't covered by good imagery on Google Earth....so I went for my favorite local area that is - Donington Park race circuit......

DOH..

I actually wrote that post with 1024 x 1024 maths...then thought "Duh - Ciclops is 800 x 800 CCD's..."

0.64 Megapixels is so 1980s

Looking back at the raw jpgs - I see 7 filters for most of the patches almost all 2 x 2 binned.

IR3 short exp
IR3 long exp
VIO long
VIO short
Clear Long
Clear Short
Clear Medium Exp NOT 2 x 2 binned.

165 / 7 = 23 and a bit pointings...perhaps they dropped some of the short exposures for pointings most distant from the 'diamond ring' area.

Doug

9 frames wide by 3 frames tall at 2 x 2 binning is only 3600 x 1200 on an 800 x 800 ccd.

I'd say 3976x1332 is the full image at full resolution.

Perhaps they intend to put the binned colour onto unbinnned clear filters - but in terms of the colour data - I think we have seen it in all its glory.

Doug

Don't ask the IAU - they don't have a clue what they're doing

Under their rules, Pluto is a Dwarf Planet but no one would deny it's still a Kuiper Belt object. I think it's just a venn-diagram overlap of 'Dwarf Planet' and 'Asteroid' where you'll find Ceres.

Becaus a couple of dozen people held up a particular coloured card in a conference room - suddenly Ceres stops being an asteroid? That's just moronic. It remains a member of the asteroid belt.

That is the pivotal idiocy of all this nonsesne..Pluto is still Pluto and Ceres is still Ceres. One is still a KBO and one is still an Asteroid. If you also decide to classify them as Dwarf Planets or Planets or anything....they're still a KBO and an Asteroid. Whoever decided to try and claim, via Wikipedia, that Ceres is not an asteroid is an idiot.

Doug
(PS - I would be very very wary use Wikipedia as a source of fact or reliable information)

Ugly...yes. Fake? What are you talking about. They've intentionally overexposed to get a clearer view of the rock thus causing saturation of the sky which has bled into the upper part of the rock.

Doug

Where would that leave the New Frontiers and Discovery programs at NASA (i.e. Stardust, Genesis, New Horizons, Juno, Deep Imapct, NEAR) and the flagship missions at ESA such as Rosetta / Bepi-Columbo

Each agency is doing what it can - cooperating ( at the level I think it's most appropriate to cooperate - the 'instrument' level ) where it can...I think as things are at the moment it's not too bad.

It seems like you're basically trying to move all these pieces around, when what you're looking for is a bigger budget all around.

Doug

It's been mentioned before

If someone goes and changes the logo on the plaque on the Pioneer spacecraft....then I'll change the logo

Doug

I wouldn't want to do it ( too much of a trumpet blowing exercise ) but if someone else wants to ping me for questions and then start one, I'm all for it.

Doug

From the MOC generated DEM you can tell that the SE slopes are a lot shallower than the NW slopes.

Doug

Hi Tuvas - I don't think you have anything to be sorry for. The majority appreciate that HiRISE is a complex beast, and it's product require work before going online. Also - it's very different to the whole MER idea of streaming products straight online.

It's been a brave decision to do the 'peoples camera' model of throwing the images out there quickly, but one I hope that the team will be proud of over time!

Doug

The first post in the thread was very interesting. You took that and went in the political direction, and two other people followed. The thread stays - the politics doesn't.

Doug

Or Phobophiliac



Doug