[X] My Assistant

[elakdawalla]

OK, so I have been given a late assignment to create a "Year in Pictures" feature for our site looking back at 2005, and I'm looking for some "homework help" . I did one of these last year (sadly it is not available on the new site, I will try to repost it ASAP) and included pictures from Wild-2, tons from Spirit and Opportunity and Cassini, Genesis embedded in the desert, that sort of thing. The idea is to showcase pictures that are beautiful, scientifically meaningful, or historically important, or all of the above. I thought I'd see if any of you might have any opinions about what I should include. I've already got a space reserved for at least one "amateur" pic, likely the Av Week cover. I can't include everything that's suggested here (my editor has final say) but this community collectively has a much broader viewpoint on the last year than just lil' old me and I'm sure you'll come up with good stuff I never would have thought of...

--Emily

[djellison]

What I'd include....

The Hubble Mars shot of the Dust Storm
Plutos two new moons
MRO Launch and/or Lunar Calib image
Anything and Everything from Cassini - particularly some of the KODAKMMT's
DI images, the impactor images are fairly poor quality, but a sequence of flyby images of the impact would be good
Aqua/Terra images of Hurricanes / Flooding and Hemel Hempstead Oil Depot / LA Bush Fires
Aqua / Terra images of the Annular Eclipse
Images of the Tile Gap Filler removal EVA
Something from MEX, umm, the ancient Martian 'Glaciers'
Heck - I could think of dozens

Doug

[lyford]

I would nominate this shot of Hyperion

Dramatic, good balance of art and science, etc. Makes nice desktop wallpaper - which is why these missions are funded, right?

And I second most of Doug's

[mhoward]

I think Spirit's Summit Pan would be a no-brainer. Honestly, although it's a shame, I think that may be the only result from the rovers that much of the public has even been vaguely aware of this year. It does truly represent a significant moment in spaceflight, IMHO.

[djellison]

Ahh - the Summit Pan + Deck pan reprojected in the Polar Format as seen in this place would be the best way to present it I think - and yes, it should be in there

Doug

[odave]

I second the Hyperion image.

Two others I would make sure to include are the Enceladus plumes, and at least one shot from Hayabusa showing those large boulders on Itokawa just hanging there at non-intuitive angles.

[JRehling]

I would nominate this shot of Hyperion

Dramatic, good balance of art and science, etc.  Makes nice desktop wallpaper - which is why these missions are funded, right?

I'd revise that to the *color* image of Hyperion. Ansel Adams and the now-rare Hollywood B&W film withstanding, color is what the public wants to see, since the midpoint of Wizard of Oz.

The thing that aggravates me about good desktop images is that the normal use of my computer obscures everything but the edges. Especially devastating to whole-object pictures with black boundaries!

[lyford]

I'd revise that to the *color* image of Hyperion. Ansel Adams and the now-rare Hollywood B&W film withstanding, color is what the public wants to see, since the midpoint of Wizard of Oz.

Well, color notwithstanding, I think you are right about the composition - lays a little nicer in the frame:

[Phillip]

I would include one of the shots that shows the shadow of the Hayabusa probe on the Itokawa Asteroid. Noteworthy and thought provoking.



Phillip

[elakdawalla]

Great stuff so far...keep it coming!

I'm adding a Huygens view of the channels on Titan to the list. I can't decide though whether to use one of Rene Pascal's beautiful mosaics or one of the first-released raw frames. The latter is not nearly as pretty of course but it is very significant because everyone who saw it, expert or not, could instantly interpret what those channels meant...

--Emily

[Bob Shaw]

o The pre and post soil-slump 'movement' .gif images from Opportunity
o 'The Promised Land'
o Falcon-1 on the pad
o Any dust devil movies

Bob Shaw

[Michael Capobian...]

Don't forget the Iapetus in Saturnshine images, which were taken on January 1, 2005.

Michael

[DEChengst]

• The Huygens photo showing the riverbed.
  
• Image showing that Opportunity freed herself from Purgatory Dune.

[Jyril]

The Huygens surface photo is by far the most thought-provoking image of this year. As if there weren't many already.

[Jyril]

The latest batch of Cassini images released just a moment ago includes a couple of painfully beautiful images (see latest Photojournal images; full resolution images are not yet available for some reason).