[X] My Assistant

[mhoward]

Wow - FTW. And with dust devils, too, FTEW (For The Extra Win).

I converted the half-res version to QTVR for myself; would you mind if I posted it, James? Or would you like it for your site?

[Ant103]

Indeed! What an amazing work!
Absolutely beautiful James!

[Stu]

Tap tap tap.... click... tap tap.... click.... <ENTER>

That was me deleting Photoshop from my PC, cos if I live to be a thousand years old I'll never make anything even a tenth as beautiful as that. That's in danger of being your definitive work...

... until you show us your "Endeavour Rim View" panorama

Seriously, stunning piece of work James, I hope you're as proud of it as all of as here are of you.

And any new members, or lurkers, who wonder why we get so passionate about Mars and the two rovers exploring it, do yourselves a favour: download the full resolution version then set aside an hour to just wander around it, taking in the different shapes and colours of the rocks, the hues of the dust and sky, the subtle forms of the landscape, and imagine walking across it.

That's why.

[jamescanvin]

I converted the half-res version to QTVR for myself; would you mind if I posted it, James? Or would you like it for your site?

Sure feel free to post it - or I can host it if you prefer.

Thanks for all the nice comments. I don't have much time to do this stuff anymore - 6 month old daughters take a lot of time! - so it's nice to know it's appreciated.

And Stu, I hope you get around to reinstalling PS sometime soon. Your regular colour and anaglyph images are much appreciated at my end.

James

[jamescanvin]

I've added a link to the QTVR made by Mike to my site.

Or direct link (warning 7.6MB):

http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/images/A1910_3...o_half_qtvr.mov

Thanks!

James

[mhoward]

Please don't credit me - converting it to QTVR was trivial; patching together the panorama was art.

Probably time to link to James' site again since the original post is now way back on the previous page.

[HughFromAlice]

James, from a beginner (me!) to an expert (you!) - a masterful work indeed! Glad it was 35M! I love the dust devil in the distance with the sky colour grading so smoothly to brightest in the same area.

Also Stu's sentiments are great - let me, as a relatively new member also encourage those of you that are 'lurking' to make a post or two. It's fun!!! As for myself, I have found other members to be very supportive.

It's this sort of thing that makes UMSF such a great blog.

[SteveM]

I'm almost embarrassed to ask a nerdy question about such a beautiful image but: is the reddish color of the dust devil real, or is it an artifact based on the color wheel that happened to be up when the dust devil appeared?

Looking at the image in RGB, the dust devil seems sharpest in the Green channel, is very faint in the Blue channel, and is scarcely visible (if at all) in the Red channel. By comparison, the distant mountains come through well on both the Green and Blue channels.

Steve M

[CosmicRocker]

SteveM It takes a number of seconds for the pancam to change it's color filters. A moving target, like a dust devil, is usually imaged in multiple locations, unless it is moving directly toward or away from the rover. This creates a problem for color composite images. Here's one of slinted's calibrated color images of a famous dust devil from the summit of Husband Hill as an example. Notice that you can see the DD in RGB as it moved from right to left across the field of view.

[jamescanvin]

I'm almost embarrassed to ask a nerdy question about such a beautiful image but: is the reddish color of the dust devil real, or is it an artifact based on the color wheel that happened to be up when the dust devil appeared?

It is not real - the DD was moving between frames. Here are the raw L257 images that went into it

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p...QP2288L2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p...QP2288L5M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p...QP2288L7M3.HTML

Looks like I picked it up the in the L5 (green) filter - the red (L2) and blue (L7) filters are just bright background sky at that position making it appear a reddy-pink.

Don't bother looking for evidence of the others in my image, as apart from that dust devil all of the rest of the sky is artificial. I didn't notice any others when I was selecting the area for the sky gradient, but I wasn't looking too closely. I'll dig out the colourised version of that frame when I get home after work today.

James

[briv1016]

Mars Dust Devil Has Colorful Effect in Image Series

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/20090714a.html

Edit: 100th post!!!

[DFinfrock]

James,

That Calypso pan is truly spectacular. I have been enjoying the QTVR version. And I have to say, if, God forbid, Spirit were unable to extricate herself, this would be a worthy legacy that you put together.

But we know better than that. She'll be roving again, soon enough. On to Von Braun! It looks even more enticing in this view.

David

[Cruzeiro do Sul]

James, you did a fantastic work! You said you don´t have a lot of time to did it, but, for sure, you put a lot of passion in every images you did. Thank you to share this with us! I hope that Spirit will rooving again to give us more science and more opportunities to see more of such wonderfull images.

[HughFromAlice]

Quick movie of dust devil on Sol 1982 (20090801) from Exploratorium pics available today - between mid and far distance 12 o'clock. It seems to doing a bit of a loop ending up nearer Spirit.

Nav cams - 7 frames - Mars real times 14hrs-07:12 - 7:46 - 8:19 - 9:25 - 9:56 - 10:27 - 11:02

[MarkG]

Both rear and forward hazcam pictures are showing up -- movement must be near. Hoping.....