Messenger Venus flyby images Options

[Gladstoner]

Regarding the few images released after the 6/5/2007 Messenger flyby of Venus:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10124

The image caption states that 614 images were acquired. Are these available?

After all these missions, there is still a lack of (available) visible-light (non-UV) images of the 2nd rock.

[JohnVV]

the lack of details in the "Human visible" and the over all unidirectional flow in the UV

is the reason i use a 100% synthetic ( fractal based ) cloud map for Venus
the Pioneer Venus images in PDS
http://pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu/Venus/venus.html
and on
http://www.astrosurf.com/nunes/explor/explor_pvenus.htm
are great ,-- but rather OLD

[JRehling]

I suspect that with the right filters, some details on Venus would be visible to a human observer appropriately located, but a human looking at Venus from nearby with no filters at all would be on the verge of pain from the intense brightness. I suppose you could simulate it by using a mirror to reflect sunlight onto something white on a bright, sunny day so that there was a spot with double sunlight. It's bad enough looking at snow on a sunny day, and Venus sunlit clouds are about twice as bright.

But, there is contrast at the violet end of the spectrum, just barely in the visible range, and so a person with the right "sunglasses" could see detail. But without those, the SNR would be problematic due to the greater luminance in the rest of the spectrum. And, as I mentioned above, it would be somewhere between blinding and painful.

It might be interesting to consider what polarizing filters could achieve. When I'm wearing sunglasses, I often see sun dogs in the sky and notice that without the shades, the sun dog is essentially invisible.

[4throck]

Lowell was too creative on his drawings and interpretations.
On that illustration he was seeing the Y shaped pattern, and that is real.
But he interpreted the shadings as linear features, and put those into the sketch.
As always, one should never over interpret low SN data :-)