Images from Viking Orbiters Options

[machi]

"Storm and Shadow"

Phobos shadow passing over dust storm in area of Viking 1 Lander landing site.
Artificially colourised animation made from 20 frames taken by Viking 1 Orbiter.
Timewarp 40×.

Attached File(s)

 f467_40x.avi ( 951K ) Number of downloads: 3376

 

[vikingmars]

Conway Snyder (Viking Project Scientist at JPL) had a fascination for the Tharsis Plateau. In 1978, he ordered VO-1 to take some specific images in order to build a great mosaic of this spectacular geological feature. But VO-1 needed two passes to take the full perspective. The images were taken during orbits 753 and 759...

Now, you can see the perpective fully processed : an unusual and spectacular view of Mars taken from almost above its topmost point : Olympus Mons. In the far distance, Valles Marineris is stretching towards the horizon and vanishes among mists, dust layers and clouds. The weather was cloudy above some places and Conway was not so happy at 1st glance : he expected crystal clear pictures everywhere. He let Marcia Neugebauer, his "wizard" deputy for imagery, built a crude mosaic : he was so happy with the result that he had it published in a JGR issue...
Now thanks to modern computer techniques, you can see Conway Snyder's perspective revisited with the pictures fully processed and pasted together. Of course, not with Marcia's glue... The size of the mosaic is reduced 50% to fill inside the UMSF forum.

Enjoy this work dedicated to :
- Conway Snyder http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=179235 ,
- Marcia Neugebauer : most Viking Orbiter mosaics done for Press releases at JPL (the beautiful ones printed on glossy photographic paper -now collectibles-), were built by Marcia ;
- and the Planetary Society (for which Conway was a much involved member, starting from TPS' very origins)