IPB

Welcome Guest ( Log In | Register )

2 Pages V   1 2 >  
Reply to this topicStart new topic
Pioneer 10 Jupiter
jrdahlman
post May 8 2006, 08:58 PM
Post #1


Junior Member
**

Group: Members
Posts: 37
Joined: 20-November 05
Member No.: 561



Giving up on Mariner 4, I've gone back to Pioneer. Since everybody seems focussed on Pioneer 11 Saturn, I thought I'd switch to Pioneer 10 and 1973's Jupiter. Here are the results of my investigations.

As I mentioned, While the original digital data is Who Knows Where, the NSSDC does contain black-and-white negatives of them. It costs $10 each, and you need to pay for two of them for every image if you want separate Red and Blue records. I've splurged and paid $50 for 2 1/2 Pioneer 10 images.

Pioneer 10 b/w images are available at:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/Master...g?ds=PSPG-00031

They are some 8x10's, with many more 5x7's available, and Bob Tice at NSSDC was kind enough to tell me what's still available for scanning. (Bob says I'm the first to ask about these in many years. He's been doing high-quality Apollo scans for the last 4 years solid, so he welcomes any break from lunar pictures!)

Pioneer 10 pictures are labelled Ax or Bx, and the A's head toward Jupiter and count DOWN (A104-A1), while the B's are heading away from Jupiter and count up (B1-B76). (Pioneer 11 uses C & D.) Most are still available: down to A4, and B6 & up. Sadly, A2 (a motion-distorted close-up of the Red Spot), seems to be Gone Forever. There are separate "R" & "B" versions of most images for the red & blue filter.

The NASA Pioneer book gives a list of all images taken here:

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/app2.htm

but, to my amazement, none of the pictures in that book are keyed to that list! You're on your own as far as guessing what number matches to what image. (The NSSDC have no thumbnails.)

Fortunately, one of you in this forum mentioned a special Pioneer issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research. It is Volume 79, Number 25, Sept. 1, 1974. "The Imaging Experiment on Pioneer 10" by Swindell & Doose on page 3634 is just full of technical detail that we all love, and even has prints of some raw red & blue images, complete with dropouts--and the A-numbers. That was my only key to which images to order.

(Note: after all my work, and after most of this was written, somebody mentioned Ricardo Nunes's thumbnails at:

http://www.astrosurf.com/nunes/explor/explor_pioneer.htm

Arrrrrg! Wish I'd seen that earlier!)

Pioneer photos are 508 (blue) or 507 (red) by about 250 or so (don't remember) "rolls." Pioneer is spinning around 360 degrees in 12 1/2 seconds. Instead of a camera, it has one light sensor for red and one for blue--one pixel! Each roll is one scan line (actually 14 degrees out of 360), and after each roll the IPP shifts up or down for the next line. (Note that Figure 7-2 of the Nasa book is wrong or seriously misleading.) What's nice is there are no reseau marks to eliminate. What's not nice is that it takes a half-hour to build a picture, and Pioneer is moving while Jupiter turns pretty fast, which makes geometric re-projection painful. Theoretically, each roll can be peeled off and projected on a Jupiter globe separately--get out your Celestias.

I ordered A34R & A34B: full Jupiter with the Red Spot and a few "notches", and A7R & A7B: a close -up of the (I think) upper hemisphere. I deliberately picked images with "notches" so I'd know exactly were the scan lines would fall. I also wanted A5, but that was only available as a color press-release photo. (Got it.) Though split into R&B, these NSSDC negatives are not quite "raw"--it's mentioned they have a "1-D geometric stretch," and I see dropouts in the JGR that I don't see in my copies.

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll do the actual pictures in the next post.


By the way, I would LOVE to get a reprint of the Pioneer 10 JGR special issue. The raw prints on pages 3638-3644 just beg to be scanned. I don't know if would be ethical to post my Xeroxes of them, and anyway Xeroxes look really crappy. (Annoyingly, there apparently never were any Pioneer 11 articles in JGR, and the Science articles have almost zilch pictures.)

The NSSDC scanned negatives were scanned as positives and came as 50 Meg TIFF files--which is WAY overkill for Pioneer's resolution. I immediately reduced them to 15% of original, and that's what you'll find from my website. (They give me a 25-Meg maximum.) Email me at jrdahlman@netscape.net if you want full-size PNG's, or worse, the TIFF's.

Check http://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/app2.htm for details about spacecraft location for each image.

I can NOT figure out thumbnails, so all I can provide is links:

A34 Red:

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34R.jpg JPEG version
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34R15pc.png PNG version

A34 Blue:

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34B.jpg JPEG version
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34B15pc.png PNG version


A7 Red:

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A7R.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A7R15pc.png

A7 Blue:

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A7B.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A7B15pc.png


A5 in color (I think it's sideways):

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A5.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A5col15pc.png
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/Pioneer10_07_col_A5.jpg
(Throw in the full-size for good measure.)

Unfortunately, the automatic contrast on the scanner threw out a lot of contrast on the planet--A34 red in particular looks like a white ball. I'm afraid I threw a fit, and Bob kindly rescanned the A34's at no additional charge. They came much grainer, however! I did an "average pixel resample" in the reduction to 15%, and most of the grain disappeared.

A34 "a" version Red:

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34Ra.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34Ras15pc.png

A34 "a" version Blue:

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34Ba.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34Bas15pc.png


Tried overlapping these for color using Fake Green (50% red, 50% blue--please re-balance!). That just showed me they don't quite line up:

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34misreggrainy.png
http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34misregsoft.png
(You can see the difference between the orginally grainy ones and my smoothing.)

More carefully line-up, it's still not perfect. I think one needs to be rotated, which is beyond my hand-eye coordination. Here's my best attempt:

http://home.comcast.net/~jrdahlman/A34a.jpg

Anyway, enjoy!


(Thought I did two posts, and it came out as one big one. Oh well.)
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Bjorn Jonsson
post May 8 2006, 10:06 PM
Post #2


IMG to PNG GOD
****

Group: Moderator
Posts: 2250
Joined: 19-February 04
From: Near fire and ice
Member No.: 38



Very interesting work. I have been interested in the Pioneer images for a long time and recently scanned all of the images from Pioneer: First to Jupiter, Saturn and Beyond to 'save' them since paper deteriorates with time. The resulting scans look great but I haven't processed them properly yet.

QUOTE (jrdahlman @ May 8 2006, 08:58 PM) *
Pioneer 10 pictures are labelled Ax or Bx, and the A's head toward Jupiter and count DOWN (A104-A1), while the B's are heading away from Jupiter and count up (B1-B76). (Pioneer 11 uses C & D.) Most are still available: down to A4, and B6 & up. Sadly, A2 (a motion-distorted close-up of the Red Spot), seems to be Gone Forever. There are separate "R" & "B" versions of most images for the red & blue filter.

Actually they might not be gone; see http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=47592

As I have said before I would just love to get my hands on Pioneer images in digital format as opposed to paper (or comparable media).

QUOTE (jrdahlman @ May 8 2006, 08:58 PM) *
Pioneer photos are 508 (blue) or 507 (red) by about 250 or so (don't remember) "rolls." Pioneer is spinning around 360 degrees in 12 1/2 seconds. Instead of a camera, it has one light sensor for red and one for blue--one pixel! Each roll is one scan line (actually 14 degrees out of 360), and after each roll the IPP shifts up or down for the next line. (Note that Figure 7-2 of the Nasa book is wrong or seriously misleading.) What's nice is there are no reseau marks to eliminate. What's not nice is that it takes a half-hour to build a picture, and Pioneer is moving while Jupiter turns pretty fast, which makes geometric re-projection painful. Theoretically, each roll can be peeled off and projected on a Jupiter globe separately--get out your Celestias.

Projecting the images pixel by pixel onto a cylindrical map and then using 3D software to render the map is probably the best way to get rid of distortion. This was computationally very expensive 30 years ago but is no problem on today's computers. The only problem (possibly a big one) is determining the viewing geometry for each pixel and/or roll.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
4th rock from th...
post May 9 2006, 12:21 AM
Post #3


Member
***

Group: Members
Posts: 378
Joined: 21-April 05
From: Portugal
Member No.: 347



Attached Image
Attached Image
Attached Image


A quick processing of the scans biggrin.gif Thanks for posting them !!!


--------------------
_______________________
www.astrosurf.com/nunes
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
edstrick
post May 12 2006, 09:54 AM
Post #4


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 1870
Joined: 20-February 05
Member No.: 174



At the ISDC (National Space Society's International Space Development Conference, partly organized and ch-hosted by the Planetary Society), there was a talk on the Pioneer Anomaly, which included discussion of the effort to recover Pioneer data from all over and in different formats. Apparently they did recover most of it, except ?most? of the Earth-to-Jupiter Pioneer ?10? data up to the start of encounter. I specifically asked if that included the science data, including the imaging and apparently, yes. Something like 45 gig of data on 17 DVDs.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
tedstryk
post May 12 2006, 10:41 AM
Post #5


Interplanetary Dumpster Diver
****

Group: Admin
Posts: 4404
Joined: 17-February 04
From: Powell, TN
Member No.: 33



QUOTE (edstrick @ May 12 2006, 09:54 AM) *
At the ISDC (National Space Society's International Space Development Conference, partly organized and ch-hosted by the Planetary Society), there was a talk on the Pioneer Anomaly, which included discussion of the effort to recover Pioneer data from all over and in different formats. Apparently they did recover most of it, except ?most? of the Earth-to-Jupiter Pioneer ?10? data up to the start of encounter. I specifically asked if that included the science data, including the imaging and apparently, yes. Something like 45 gig of data on 17 DVDs.


When you say gig, do you mean bits or bytes?


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
edstrick
post May 12 2006, 11:02 AM
Post #6


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 1870
Joined: 20-February 05
Member No.: 174



the some 17 dvd's worth suggests bytes. My very vague suspicion is that this includes large amounts of tracking data not actually transmitted by the spacecraft, plus science and engineering data
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
tedstryk
post May 19 2008, 05:59 AM
Post #7


Interplanetary Dumpster Diver
****

Group: Admin
Posts: 4404
Joined: 17-February 04
From: Powell, TN
Member No.: 33



Here is a new version of the Pioneer 10 Ganymede image. It was constructed from the digital data, which I have also attached.

Attached Image

On the left is the red channel and on the right is the blue channel. They appear extremely dark because the data is 6 bit but displayed in an 8-bit format and is not stretched.

Attached Image Attached Image

Here are some very stretched versions

Attached Image Attached Image


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
4th rock from th...
post May 19 2008, 10:42 AM
Post #8


Member
***

Group: Members
Posts: 378
Joined: 21-April 05
From: Portugal
Member No.: 347



That's great! The best version of that image I've ever seen. The digital data should really help :-)
One thing that I like about the Pioneer images is that color reproduction is very accurate, given the imaging system used. Ganymede's subtle bluish shades are consistent with updated imagery from Cassini, for example. A comparison shot would be nice ;-)


--------------------
_______________________
www.astrosurf.com/nunes
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Decepticon
post May 19 2008, 03:23 PM
Post #9


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 1276
Joined: 25-November 04
Member No.: 114



WOW!


Ganymede looks very Europaish. blink.gif
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
tedstryk
post May 19 2008, 06:59 PM
Post #10


Interplanetary Dumpster Diver
****

Group: Admin
Posts: 4404
Joined: 17-February 04
From: Powell, TN
Member No.: 33



I don't have a comparison shot at the moment, but much of the same area is covered in this Galileo shot.

Attached Image


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
edstrick
post May 20 2008, 07:39 AM
Post #11


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 1870
Joined: 20-February 05
Member No.: 174



The Pioneer shot I want to see restored is the closest in Pioneer 10 shot, something like 60 or maybe even 20 km pixel
(I believe it was Pioneer 10)

They reproduced the raw R/B image pair in the Pioneers' Journal of Geophysical Research Special Issue a year or two after the encounters.
Radiation upsets caused gain and offset to change more than once during image acquitision, some of the data was badly underexposed.
In additoin, there is considerable "herringbone" noise, as I recall, due to increased electrical interference somehow due to high radiation levels.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
tasp
post May 20 2008, 01:57 PM
Post #12


Member
***

Group: Members
Posts: 903
Joined: 30-January 05
Member No.: 162



Much appreciation for this thread.

I was in high school during this encounter and was quite taken with the images. I had seen very few color pictures from space missions at the time, the moon being mostly a black and white object and the Mariner 6/7 Mars having occurred prior to my really developing too much interest in space. So the 'psychedelic' colors from Pioneer 10 were for me the first big color extravaganza from a space mission.

{I recall a Surveyor lunar image from National Geographic that was in color, but the only color in the image was the calibration target bolted to the lander}

Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Guest_PhilCo126_*
post Aug 23 2008, 04:38 PM
Post #13





Guests






First Pioneer 10 images of Jupiter were made on 6th November 1973 at a distance of 25 million km from the gas-giant. The data from the imaging photo-polarimeter were converted into pictures by Pioneer Image Converter System (PICS) and displayed on TV screens in the Main Auditorium at Ames Research Center. The quality wasn't great but got better, here's an example of pictures taken between 44 and 40 hrs before periapsis in December 1973:
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
tedstryk
post Aug 3 2013, 01:42 AM
Post #14


Interplanetary Dumpster Diver
****

Group: Admin
Posts: 4404
Joined: 17-February 04
From: Powell, TN
Member No.: 33



My most recent Pioneer-10 work http://planetimages.blogspot.com/2013/08/j...pioneer-10.html

Attached Image


--------------------
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Hungry4info
post Aug 3 2013, 04:58 AM
Post #15


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 1413
Joined: 26-July 08
Member No.: 4270



Wow! That is, without a doubt, the best work I have ever seen out of Pioneer!


--------------------
-- Hungry4info (Sirius_Alpha)
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post

2 Pages V   1 2 >
Reply to this topicStart new topic

 



RSS Lo-Fi Version Time is now: 19th March 2024 - 03:17 AM
RULES AND GUIDELINES
Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT
Images posted on UnmannedSpaceflight.com may be copyrighted. Do not reproduce without permission. Read here for further information on space images and copyright.

OPINIONS AND MODERATION
Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators.
SUPPORT THE FORUM
Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member.