Registax and MER images, Just seeing if it works... Options

[Stu]

After James mentioned "stacking" in one of his posts in the 'Distant Vistas' thread, I thought I'd have a go at using the astronomical image stacking freeware program "Registax" with MER images, just to see if it would work - hoping, of course, to bring out details on the Endeavour hills - and was quite pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. Others can do much better, I'm sure, but for a first go, hmm, quite happy.

Took half a dozen Pancam images of our old friend from Sol 2024 (Oct 2009), like this...



... and after stacking them together, and doing a bit more tweaking with contrast and brightness and cropping, got this...



As usual with my stuff, not claiming any scientific value, or new insights into the associated geology, just trying to make an attractive picture.

Some more here: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/stack-em-up including one I'm really pleased with... http://roadtoendeavour.files.wordpress.com...8/met-new2b.jpg

[elakdawalla]

But you don't have to be an "experienced data trawler," Stu, that's what I'm trying to say (and it may seem I'm picking on you, but I am talking to everyone who's gotten into space image processing because of the raw data but is scared to plunge into the real data). I just asked myself the question: "how can I get to PDS versions of the images in the fewest number of clicks, without any special software?" Please just humor me and follow my clicks:

Go to the PDS Imaging Node.
Click on the link at left to Planetary Image Atlas.
Under the "Select Mission" window at top left, click "Mars Exploration Rover."
Under the "Image Type" thingy in the center, click "Regular."
Under "Planet Day Number," type in the sol number you're interested in (in this case 2024), same in both boxes.
If you want, you can select just Pancam or whatever, but you don't have to.
On the left, under "Product Search," click "Get Results."
There, now you can find all the images from sol 2024. Click on any one of them, and you'll get the option to download it in whatever format you like -- JPEG, PNG, TIFF, or GIF.

That's it. That's all you have to do. Four clicks and type in the sol number, and you're at the pictures you want. No special software. No programming. Nothing scary. The computer won't bite you. You do so much outreach and so much work with these photos -- I can't understand why you'd want to work with the crappy JPEG photos -- and show all the people you talk to those photos -- when just four clicks will get you to the REAL data, in nice, safe formats you're familiar with, like PNG. We work with the raw JPEGs because that's what we have to do to follow the mission in real time, but once the real data is available, with all the artifacts calibrated out, it's a terrible shame to keep working with the JPEGs.

And guess what? A similar series of clicks gets you straight to science quality photos from nearly every mission that carried a camera into space. Cassini, too, and Voyager, Galileo, Viking, etc. etc. Three clicks just got me to every single photo of Deimos from Viking Orbiter. It is all there at the Imaging Node.

JUST FOUR CLICKS. EVERYBODY DO IT. I know it's intimidating, so do it when nobody else is watching. But there's no reason you can't look at the real data. Don't sell yourselves short, you're all scientists, so look at the science data!