Images from Viking Orbiters Options

[eoincampbell]

A feast for the eyes, Viking comes alive, it's such a careful treatment of a spectacular view, thanks for sharing.

[vikingmars]

Region from Argyre Planitia to the Thaumasia Fossae from Viking Orbiter 1:

What a GREEEEEAT pic Machi ! Thanks a lot for sharing with us. You deserve 5 wheels

[machi]

Thanks to all!

With all my Vikings mosaics and animations, I reduced number of images in my folder with favorite Viking images from ~2250 to ~2100,
so there is still what to do.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Possibly the best Viking mosaic of Mars I have ever seen. You mention that as part of the processing the images were warped. Was this done to correct for the vidicon distortion or to make it possible to mosaic them without getting ugly seams?

[Phil Stooke]

Spacecraft motion between frames?

Phil

[machi]

"Was this done to correct for the vidicon distortion or to make it possible to mosaic them without getting ugly seams?"

Vikings vidicons had relatively small geometric distortion (compared to previous Martian mission Mariner 9). So I did warping only for mosaicking and resizing (bUnwarpJ does both things in one process). Only problems are with corners, which have most severe geometric distortion. So if possible, I used central parts from overlapping images, which have lowest geometric distortion.

"Spacecraft motion between frames?"

It looks, that spacecraft motion between frames was relatively low. After all, Viking was in higher (and slower) part of his orbit.

[Lightning]

Isis does not provide enough metadata for a fine and automatic warping then registration ?

[djellison]

It's hard to map project an image when two corners are in space.

[Lightning]

Sure it's harder, but... not that much, it's still geometry basics. I thought Isis could handle those cases.
Thanks for the information, it's good to know.

Congrats machi, the image is really great ! I love the details in the atmosphere...

[machi]

"Isis does not provide enough metadata for a fine and automatic warping then registration ?"

I don't use ISIS. I haven't LINUX yet (at home), but I want them (LINUX+ISIS) for my new computer (not for mosaicking, but for 3D modeling - shape from shade etc.).

[vikingmars]

Conway Snyder (Viking Project Scientist at JPL) had a fascination for the Tharsis Plateau. In 1978, he ordered VO-1 to take some specific images in order to build a great mosaic of this spectacular geological feature. But VO-1 needed two passes to take the full perspective. The images were taken during orbits 753 and 759...

Now, you can see the perpective fully processed : an unusual and spectacular view of Mars taken from almost above its topmost point : Olympus Mons. In the far distance, Valles Marineris is stretching towards the horizon and vanishes among mists, dust layers and clouds. The weather was cloudy above some places and Conway was not so happy at 1st glance : he expected crystal clear pictures everywhere. He let Marcia Neugebauer, his "wizard" deputy for imagery, built a crude mosaic : he was so happy with the result that he had it published in a JGR issue...
Now thanks to modern computer techniques, you can see Conway Snyder's perspective revisited with the pictures fully processed and pasted together. Of course, not with Marcia's glue... The size of the mosaic is reduced 50% to fill inside the UMSF forum.

Enjoy this work dedicated to :
- Conway Snyder http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=179235 ,
- Marcia Neugebauer : most Viking Orbiter mosaics done for Press releases at JPL (the beautiful ones printed on glossy photographic paper -now collectibles-), were built by Marcia ;
- and the Planetary Society (for which Conway was a much involved member, starting from TPS' very origins)

[vikingmars]

... Although the images were taken as panchromatic filtered pics, and because of some UMSF friends personal requests, here is the colourized version of the mosaic (using multiple-layers colouring). Enjoy !



... and let me dedicate this mosaic to our UMSF forum "Cartographer-in-Chief" : Phil Stooke, who deserves so oftenly our congratulations for his work and for sharing it with us.

[machi]

It's gorgeous!

"The size of the mosaic is reduced 50% to fill inside the UMSF forum."

I think, that you can send full resolution image to Emily's "Amateur Space Imaging" site. It would be very nice addition.

"and let me dedicate this mosaic to our UMSF forum "Cartographer-in-Chief" : Phil Stooke, who deserves so oftenly our congratulations for his work and for sharing it with us."

I totally agree!

[Phil Stooke]

Merci! It's beautiful.

Phil

[vikingmars]

I think, that you can send full resolution image to Emily's "Amateur Space Imaging" site. It would be very nice addition.

Thanks a lot and good idea ! I'll do it when the previous images I sent a while ago are published inside the "Amateur Space Imaging" site. I think they are overburied with work and cannot take more huge images now. No problem : I'll wait then