[X] My Assistant

[Phil Stooke]

Check out this animation of a rotating moon:

http://wms.selene.jaxa.jp/selene_viewer/jp...t/lalt_009.html

It's Kaguya altimetric data, rendered into a globe with 10x vertical exaggeration - almost makes the moon look like Itokawa! I don't really go for the photometric function they used, I'd prefer simple shadowing. But it's still very nice. Tip - click on the blue buttons for different magnifications of the image, the bottom one is biggest.

Phil

[djellison]

I can not wait for that dataset to be released - we animators have been waiting a LONG time for a good moon bump map

[John Moore]

Wow...10-fold animation looks incredible.

Orientale looks brilliant, but then along comes the SPA basin..which dominates the scene...notice how before it comes into view the edge of the Moon around that region looks nearly flat.

As animations can sometimes be a bit hard on the eyes, have put together a series of 'stills'. -- (http://the-moon.wikispaces.com/Miscellany2#toc12).

PS. The third blue button down from the top is best as it's not too long loading.

John
http://www.moonposter.ie

[Phil Stooke]

I'm plotting impact predictions as they evolve. Here's the current map. Although the base mosaic is from Clementine and Map-A-Planet, I am using coordinates taken from the Lunar Orbiter mosaic, which I think are more up to date. (Only with altimetry will we finally get accurate coordinates all over the Moon, as happened for Mars too).

Phil

[dvandorn]

Just today saw "Direct from the Moon" on the National Geographic Channel. It's a compilation, among other things, of some of the best Kaguya HD camera sequences.

And I managed to record it and watch it in HD.

Oh.

My.

God.

My swear jar just reached critical density and has developed a Schwarzchild radius...

-the other Doug

[charborob]

Two videos have been posted by Jaxa on their Youtube channel. They were taken by the HDTV camera at low altitudes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJmT3dPbwHE...feature=channel
This one has been taken at perilune from an altitude of 11 km.
(I had Google translate the Japanese caption of this video, and I got this: "Orbiter, "furniture store" perilune HDTV in wide-angle camera (about altitude 11 km) were observed from the moon". What the heck do they mean by "furniture store"? More likely a translation error.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c1T2oKEffQ...feature=channel
This one is over Antoniadi crater from an altitude of 21-22 km
(The caption for this one is: "Orbiter, "and smell" of the HDTV camera height of about 21 ~ 22k m wide and around ANTONIAJI observed."

I hope they get videos from still lower altitudes. Should be interesting.

I was wondering what would be the ground resolution of Kaguya's terrain camera at such low altitudes. Enough to discern Apollo hardware?

[helvick]

It's about 1.4m/pixel at that altitude if they're using the 15deg "telephoto", otherwise with the standard 44deg FOV lens it's about 4-5m/pixel. If they were bang on with the telephoto mode the modules would be about 3x3 pixels and the buggies would show up as 2x1 pixels. That's not good enough for the man made hardware but the general disruption around the lander are might actually be identifiable given how much information we have about the areas in question. LROC will deliver 50cm resolution which should be enough as it might even show up some buggy tracks in addition to the module and buggies.

[charborob]

Thanks for the information. I probably could have found out myself, but I don't have the time to dig through Jaxa's website to get at the specifications of the instruments.

Another question: can the HDTV camera on Kaguya be pointed sideways? All the videos I saw were either forward-looking or backward-looking.

[Phil Stooke]

One little problem with high resolution viewing of the Apollo sites - the perilune is at high southern altitudes, so they are quite a bit higher at Apollo latitudes. Also, I think all remaining perilunes are on the night side. There aren't too many left.

JAXA has been doing a great job of issuing news releases, video and images lately. Memo to ISRO - this is how you keep people excited about your mission!

Phil

[ilbasso]

Remembering 40 years ago when Apollo 10/Snoopy was flying just a little higher than this, Stafford said "We is down among 'em!" and commented that he and Cernan kept wanting to lift their feet for fear of hitting the mountain tops. It's really incredible to see such high-res films from this altitude.

[Gsnorgathon]

Thanks for the information. I probably could have found out myself, but I don't have the time to dig through Jaxa's website to get at the specifications of the instruments.

Another question: can the HDTV camera on Kaguya be pointed sideways? All the videos I saw were either forward-looking or backward-looking.

I imagine the whole spacecraft could be turned sideways, but that'd be the only way.

[SpaceListener]

If you live in Asia & Australia you may be able to observe the Kaguya impact! June 10th/18:30UT
Kaguya Impact Alert

[remcook]

More about today's impact on e.g. spaceweather.com
JAXA link:
http://www.kaguya.jaxa.jp/en/communication...ar_Impact_e.htm

[ngunn]

Impact point map from ESA:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEMM5RVTGVF_0.html

[charborob]

Two more low-altitude videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJZDTRtJqBQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBppgmNNtoI