MEX VMC - Back on, and online! Options

[djellison]

I heard about this 24 hours ago, and couldn't believe it - this is EXACTLY what has been missing from ESA. MASSIVE kudos to the ESOC MEX flight ops team for doing it

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/VMC/index.html

The last time I wrote a post and hit 'submit' at UMSF with a smile this big on my face, was when Oppy successfully got out of Purgatory.

[Juramike]

It's baaaack!

Another cloud sequence at sunrise over Terra Cimmeria taken one month after the post 35 cloud movie. This shows a much more impressive series of clouds. These are located near Electris Crater [-45S, 150W] in Terra Cimmeria.



(click to animate GIF)

The brightish crater at center is Copernicus crater at [-50S, 170W]. There was another dimmer cloud visible near the terminator just to the ESE of Copernicus crater but it wasn't as photogenic (or on all the frames).


All these used the first image (the most exposed) in the sequence of 4 exposures. These are beautifully spaced in 10 minutes steps for a neat time-lapse sequence of 1 h.

Terra Cimmeria seems to be a breeding ground for these clouds (3 for 3!). Might be nice for the next scheduled observation run that views Terra Cimmeria near the terminator to use the longer exposure times, and space the images at shorter time periods (3 to 5 min.). Then you can get a neat smooth movie, or do image stacking to pull up the contrast on a particularly nice set.

-Mike