Voyager 1 images of Earth, Where? Options

[um3k]

I know for a fact that Voyager 1 took at least one picture of Earth. Does anyone have any idea where raw data can be found? Or any data at all, for that matter? The only online image I can find is this one: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00013

[ljk4-1]

You mean besides this one:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02228

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00453

http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/pbd.html

[um3k]

Yeah, I already know about that one. I'm looking for much closer ones.

[tedstryk]

I don't know if closer ones exist. I have searched for the raw data for the earth moon shot, but haven't found it.

Ted

[djellison]

I did the same - strangely the Voyager data sets dont start "0001" they start "0006" - and I'm guessing the first 5 are infact calib, checkout, and the images we're talking about.

Doug

[um3k]

I'm pretty sure I've seen closer images somewhere, but where, well, I have no idea. Then again, maybe I'm just confused. I know Mariner 10 took closeup images of Earth, maybe that's what I saw. But still...

*In case I implied otherwise, I'm also looking for Voyager 2 images of Earth.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Did the GALILEO spacecraft take such an image as well?

[djellison]

Just a few

http://www.solarviews.com/cap/earth/earthgal.htm

[tedstryk]

Galileo took far more image data during its Earth flybys than it was able to return from Jupiter.

[deglr6328]

And some of the most interesting images of earth from deep space probes contain almost no detail of the planet at all.... (imho)

[Guest_Analyst_*]

This is the problem with the older missions, there is not so much online but in real libraries etc. I am still loocking for Voyager press kits and other documents online, but not much luck so far.

I am sure the raws of the famous Earth-Moon shot are at some place, they have to be. The Earth-Moon pictures were only made by Voyager 1 (launched second), the reference for this is an old issue of National Geographic (1990) from the Neptune encounter. The idea to take a picture with both bodies came after the launch of Voyager 2, Ed Stone said there. Maybe there are shots from greater distance (optical navigation or check out) from both probes, but a far as I know close ups exist only made by Voyager 1.

A great source for Voyager pictures is:

http://pds-rings.seti.org/catalog/vgriss.html

But there is nothing you are looking for.

Analyst

Btw. deglr6328: What does this picture show and which craft made it?

[djellison]

I think it's the Galileo laser-comms experiment.

Doug

[deglr6328]

yes, it is the GOPEX test.

[ups]

Enhanced version of the original Voyager image of Earth.

Perspective.

---ups

[ljk4-1]

Hey, I can see my house!

Did you remove the sunbeam purposely? Or did it just disappear when you enhanced it?

Your image certainly brings home the Pale Blue Dot theme.

At the distance Voyager 1 was from Earth in 1990, what would our planet's relative
magnitude be?

[ups]

Hey, I can see my house!

Did you remove the sunbeam purposely? Or did it just disappear when you enhanced it?

Your image certainly brings home the Pale Blue Dot theme.

At the distance Voyager 1 was from Earth in 1990, what would our planet's relative
magnitude be?

I just kept tinkering until I was able to make the 'background' around earth nice and dark -- then I tried to bring out a bit of the pale blue that was imaged by Voyager.

I would hate to try and guess what the earth's magnitude would be if one was riding 'on board' Voyager -- I would think right around 0.0 [neither negative nor positive] but I will leave this to someone more versed in the relative brightness of celestial objects.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

So it was Voyager 1 which turned its camera back to the planets and took the 60 photo mosaic ( 39 wide-angle and 21 narrow-angle images ) photo now known as the 'Family portrait of the solar system' ... Pale Blue dot press meeting of June 1990.

[ngunn]

Enhanced version of the original Voyager image of Earth.

That's so clear I'm surprised the moon isn't visible as well.

[As old as Voyage...]

Here's a link to JPL's Solar System Simulator that shows the location of the Moon as seen by Voyager 1 on the day it took the 'Pale Blue Dot' image.

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...=1&showsc=1

It brings home just how unresolvable the Moon would appear on the image!

[Jyril]

Hardly surprising, as the Moon is far smaller and far darker than our planet.

BTW, the crescent view of the Earth and the Moon is the first of its kind.

[JRehling]

I would hate to try and guess what the earth's magnitude would be if one was riding 'on board' Voyager

Half Venus has a magnitude of -4 from about 1 AU. Earth is about 1/4 the brightness of Venus. When Voyager was about 30 AU out, it would be 1/900 dimmer still. 1/3600 of Venus's brightness is 9 magnitudes dimmer, so a half Earth as seen from Voyager (Neptune) would be about a +5 magnitude object. A lot brighter than Neptune is, seen from Earth, since Earth is so much closer to a light source.

Interestingly, that means the planets "visible" to the human eye from Neptune would include Venus, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn... probably not Uranus, which would show a crescent except when it was very far away.

[tedstryk]

Other than from Mariner 10

http://www.solarviews.com/raw/earth/em.jpg

[peter59]

So it was Voyager 1 which turned its camera back to the planets and took the 60 photo mosaic ( 39 wide-angle and 21 narrow-angle images ) photo now known as the 'Family portrait of the solar system' ... Pale Blue dot press meeting of June 1990.

I can't find these raw images at PDS. Family portrait of the Solar system was taken by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990. I found here last image taken by Voyager 2 on September 29, 1989. I hope that they are not lost.

[Deeman]

Hi there,

Found that one in my Archives .To be honest, I dont know whether its Voyager I or II .Shame on me !


Dirk,

[elakdawalla]

It's Voyager 1, captured on September 18, 1977.

I just checked with a friend at the Rings Node and he said that since neither the 1977 or 1990 images were part of an "encounter," they weren't part of the archiving process that sent data to the PDS. However, he expressed confidence that the data was lying around JPL somewhere, and said he'd check into it.

--Emily

[Ken90000]

That is exciting news. I would love to see the dataset that included those post-launch Earth and Moon shots. Likewise, I believe Voyager imaged Mars as it crossed it’s orbit. That would be a fun group of images to see as well.

[tasp]

Has anyone ever seen an image of the flat white optical calibration plate ?

I realize the picture would be a white blob, but we had a thread a while back about probes that had photographed themselves. As bad as that Voyager image would be, detail wise, it still counts.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

I have a large collection of Voyager Press Kits, so I guess I'll have to make these available in .pdf as soon as possible ;-)
What I'm also interested in are the videos produced by KCET Public Television network which ran a nightly "Jupiter Watch" show during the months February and March 1979... about time someone put those on YouTube !

[Ken90000]

Has anyone ever seen an image of the flat white optical calibration plate ?

You can find images of the optical calibration plate at the PDS as well. There are some examples on nearly all of the volumes. They are labeled “CALIBRATION PLAQUE”.

Remember, even the wide angle camera had a relativity narrow field of view. Therefore, the image only includes a small part of the plaque. The imaged just look like a flat white field with a few imperfections caused by the camera itself.

[Paolo]

Voyager Celebrates 20-Year-Old Valentine to Solar System
dear JPL, what about releasing the raw data?

[elakdawalla]

Patience, young grasshopper! And stay tuned.

[PDP8E]

Dear JPL data archivists,

Can we please see the raw images of the Pale Blue Dot now?
Its been 22 years!

Both my daughters (one finishing college and one about to go) were both born after 1990!
..and the computers we have now have speeds greater than 16Mhz, and with memory space greater than 32Meg <really!>

<well...except for my still running 1974 DEC PDP8 with a blazing clock speed of 1.2Mhz and 24KILO-bytes of core memory....>

[machi]

"Can we please see the raw images of the Pale Blue Dot now?"

That would be nice.
BTW, some images from beginning of mission are unavailable too. For example famous images of Earth and Moon.

[ugordan]

For example famous images of Earth and Moon.

I'd like to get my hands on those as well.

[JohnVV]

---edit---

[nprev]

John, I think he's referring to the V1(?) post-launch shot of the Earth & Moon in the same frame.

[machi]

...I think he's referring to the V1(?) post-launch shot of the Earth & Moon in the same frame.

Yes, that's it.

... but i thought it was in the archive

http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/voyager/
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/vo1_v...-2-edr-br-v2.0/

It wasn't and still I don't see it in archive. Two known sets of images are missing in archive. 1990's well known "Family portrait" and 1977's images of the Earth and Moon.
And of course, it's possible that there are some other, generally unknown images.
I think, that is good idea to digitally archive all older NASA's data and make them online, because classic magnetic tapes or even papers are not very safe. For some older data, even people from NASA archives don't know, where they are.
For example, original digital raw images from Mariner 4, or digital raw data from Pioneer 10 and 11 imaging photopolarimeters.

[PDP8E]

Here is the published 'earth & moon' image from Voyager 1 (1977)


source:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/p...-earthmoon.html

click on the 'caption' link for interesting comments

[um3k]

Emily! I saw your presentation on the Voyager 35th video, can't wait to see the full set of images! After 6 years, this thread will finally have closure.

[elakdawalla]

I have the data, but am still not sure if I'm permitted to post it or not. It's been a while since I've asked about this, so I'll ping them again.

[um3k]

I have the data, but am still not sure if I'm permitted to post it or not. It's been a while since I've asked about this, so I'll ping them again.

No pressure, it's just good to know it hasn't vanished, and that there are now backups.

[PaulH51]

No pressure, it's just good to know it hasn't vanished, and that there are now backups.

Did the raw images every get released?

[Astroboy]

Will we ever see the cruise data? I'm as interested in the cruise observations of the gas giants as I am in the Earth departure sequence and Pale Blue Dot.

[JohnVV]

all of the data is in PDS
Jupiter
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/vg1_v...iss-2-edr-v3.0/

Saturn
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/vg1_v...iss-2-edr-v2.0/

Neptune
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/vg2-n-iss-2-edr-v1.0/

Uranus
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/vg2-u-iss-2-edr-v1.0/

---

the online data volumes and the mirrors for most things
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/volumes/


all the voyager and mirrors EDR's and RDR's
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/volumes/vo...tml#vgrISSEDR-J



two SEARCH tools
https://pds.nasa.gov/tools/data-search/

and atlas 2 -- with preview for ? most ? images
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/search/

[Astroboy]

all the voyager and mirrors EDR's and RDR's
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/volumes/vo...tml#vgrISSEDR-J

Has anyone had any luck opening the files ending in .0xx in the Quick Look EDR folders? I didn't have any luck finding the Earth pics anywhere else but I'm sure they're buried somewhere in the EDRs.

[peter59]

but I'm sure they're buried somewhere in the EDRs.

You're wrong, they are not here.

[peter59]

Has anyone had any luck opening the files ending in .0xx in the Quick Look EDR folders? I didn't have any luck finding the Earth pics anywhere else but I'm sure they're buried somewhere in the EDRs.

I'm sorry Astroboy, but I'm wrong. I did not notice when PDS released Voyager's Quick Look EDR files. I'm writing a program that will view this data set. This is my first attempt to obtain the image IP_101.002 (still imperfect).

When I finish the program, I will download all volumes VGR_1201 - VGR_1247 and I will look through all the images.

[elakdawalla]

Hmm. I had not noticed those, either. You can download them, change their extensions to raw, and open them in Photoshop with a width of 1280 and a height of 801. The couple of examples I've looked at so far don't look like cruise data, they look like encounter data, but according to the readme files there should be cruise data lurking in there somewhere.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Astroboy]

^ I tried your method in ImageJ and it worked splendidly. Thanks Emily! The search is on!

[Astroboy]

Never thought I'd be the person to give this decade-old thread some sense of finality. I still can't find the Earth and Moon pics, but here, finally, is the complete set of raw family portrait images in chronological order:

http://imgur.com/a/l29lA/all

The original files are 055560.023 through 0055590.010 in the QEDR volume VGR_1223.

[peter59]

The original files are 055560.023 through 0055590.010 in the QEDR volume VGR_1223.

Congratulations Astroboys. I suspected that the Pale Blue Dot family portrait can be found in the volume VGR_1223. Unfortunately, I was too tired yesterday to review it. You're the first. I am very pleased that this remarkable data set is not lost and will be forever in PDS.

[elakdawalla]

Splendid!

[Astroboy]

Thanks! I'm having a lot of fun digging through the cruise data even though I don't have an automated way of doing so. This feels almost as good as the first time I found the raw encounter sets.

[PhilipTerryGraha...]

Hey guys! Not too long ago I stumbled across this interesting entry from the NASA Photojournal that shows not only the "Pale Blue Dot" image, but also a full narrow-angle ISS view of Venus; an equivalent "Pale Yellow Dot" image, if you will. A wide-angle ISS view of the general area used as a context is also featured in this Photojournal entry. Here's the full image of Venus by Voyager 1, cropped from the Photojournal entry:



This got me to realize the obvious - there must be the original photographs that make up the Voyager family portrait somewhere out there! However, I have been unable to find any of these original photographs from the searches I've made across the internet. From what I can make out from the "Family Portrait" image itself, there's at least 38 wide-angle ISS images and 6 narrow-angle images. I'd imagine the other 17 frames of the apparent 60 frames, as the title of the Photojournal entry boasts, are a combination of attempted narrow-angle shots of Mercury and Mars that failed, and wide-angle shots that weren't included.

So, I come to ask the big question - where can one find the original frames of the Voyager Family Portrait? Where can the original "Pale Brown Dot", "Pale Golden Dot", "Pale Aqua dot", and "Pale Azure dot" images be found?

[JohnVV]

the old voyager data is here
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/voyager/
but some of it is missing ( lost real to real tapes )

So see post #37 in this thread
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=184324


there are a few different types of file format for the old voyager 1 & 2 tv cameras

the old compressed PDS *.imq ( IMQ )
like in this example
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/vo1_v...o_1001/f122sxx/

the *.img / *.lbl normal PDS format
like in this example
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/voyag...ISS_0004/DIONE/

or the original tv images
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/voyag...TV/001010/DATA/
the tv images are in a odd format
8 bit 1280x801

CODE

gmic 063400.001.raw,uchar,1280,801 -o 063400.001.png

but they ? might ? be in "VGR_1223"
http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/voyag...GR_1223/MAMQTV/

[Astroboy]

A few posts up I posted a link to all 60 raw images on imgur and the names of the directories the originals can be found in on PDS.

Never thought I'd be the person to give this decade-old thread some sense of finality. I still can't find the Earth and Moon pics, but here, finally, is the complete set of raw family portrait images in chronological order:

http://imgur.com/a/l29lA/all

The original files are 055560.023 through 0055590.010 in the QEDR volume VGR_1223.

[Guest_avisolo_*]

Carl Sagan reads ‘The Pale Blue Dot’:
https://vimeo.com/300050495

[palebutdot]

A few posts up I posted a link to all 60 raw images on imgur and the names of the directories the originals can be found in on PDS.

Could you please identify the specific frame Earth & Venus appear in?

[Ohsin]

Could you please identify the specific frame Earth & Venus appear in?

Comparing the collection to "Family Portrait of the Solar System" It should be this one .

https://i.imgur.com/HV74hVa.png

Following post also gives time of image taken.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/536/...-pale-blue-dot/

On Feb. 13, 1990, Voyager 1 warmed up its cameras for three hours. Then the spacecraft’s science platform was pointed at Neptune and the observations began.

After Neptune, it took images of Uranus, Saturn, Mars, the Sun, and then Jupiter, Earth and Venus. The Earth images were taken at 04:48 GMT on Feb. 14, 1990, just 34 minutes before Voyager 1 powered off its cameras forever.

Edit: Here is the cataloged image with Earth an Venus.

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00450

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Ian R]

I've been trying to open some of the EDR files from Voyager 2, circa 1985, from the period before the Uranus flyby, and all I'm getting are garbled frames (see example below).

I'm using the ImageJ RAW import facility, setting the frame size to 1200 x 801, which works for most EDR images——just not for a significant fraction of the archived data from both Voyagers prior to this point.

This is the main folder of images I'm trying to access:

https://pdsimage2.wr.usgs.gov/Missions/Voya.../qedr/VGR_1241/

Hopefully, someone here will have better luck getting these to display correctly!

[Ian R]

Made some headway with this Voyager 1 image (labeled 1745S1-034 in the EDR file), but could well be a corrupted frame:

CODE

run("Raw...", "open=[053380.003] image=[16-bit Unsigned] width=1600 height=330");

053380.003

Bizarrely, it doesn't seem to correspond with 1745S1-034 archived at the PDS:

https://opus.pds-rings.seti.org/opus/#/view...ss-1-s-c3395301

{Edit: it IS the same file; the overlapping framelets made it seem Titan was near the right ansa, which it isn't.}

[JohnVV]

isis3 opens up the imq and the img( linked above) files for that image just fine

the imq file is here
https://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/data/voyag...aturn/c3395xxx/

screen shot of the imported imq file

[Ian R]

Thanks, John. However, I'm using this image as an example of an EDR file that doesn't open correctly. Of course, there are myriad images that don't have corresponding IMG or IMQ versions (such as the content of this directory: https://pdsimage2.wr.usgs.gov/Missions/Voya...R_1241/MBMQTV/). These are the EDR products I'm really interested in.

[john_s]

Hi Ian-

Have you let the PDS folks know about your problem?

John

[Ian R]

John,

That's a good suggestion and a prudent course of action. I'll report back here when I get a reply.

Thanks!