From http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/...ent_7145873.htm


" The area covered by the picture, about 460 kilometers in length and 280 km in width, was located within a 54 to 70 degrees south latitude and 57 to 83 degrees east longitude, according to the BACC.

The area pictured was part of the moon's highland and was mainly composed of plagioclase, a common rock-forming element. On the surface were craters of different sizes, shapes, structures and ages, the BACC sources said.

"The dark patch in the picture's upper right side shows the surface blanketed by basalt, a hard and dense volcanic rock," the sources said.

Sun Laiyan, chief of the China National Space Administration, said the picture was very clear and of very good quality.

"It shows that the camera and the ground control and application systems are all working normally," said Sun at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

The picture was pieced together by 19 images, each covering a width of 60 kilometers on the moon's surface. The far right of the picture was the first area to be captured by the CCD camera aboardChang'e-1.

All the image data was collected on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21 and processed into a three-dimensional picture in several days after being transmitted back to Earth. "


Phil

The text on the right reads "中国首次月球探测工程第一幅月面图像" (Literally: China's first-time lunar exploration project first lunar surface picture)

The text on the bottom-left is too small, but some characters are still readable, google search the characters that readable reveal the full text: "中国首次月球探测工程第一幅月面图像是由嫦娥一号卫星上的CCD立体相机获得的。CCD相机采用线阵推扫的方式获取图像，轨道高度约200km，每一轨的月面幅宽60km，像元分辨率120m。中国第一幅月面图像共由19轨图像制作而成，位于月表东经83度到东经57度，南纬70度到南纬54度，图幅宽约280km，长约460km。图中右侧60公里宽的条带，是CCD相机开机获得的第一轨图像。" (Translation: China's first-time lunar exploration project first lunar surface picture was captured by the CCD stereo camera of the Chang'e 1 satellite. CCD camera uses the method "xiàn zhèn tuī sǎo" (literally: "linear, matrix, push, scan", not sure how to translate :-( ) to capture images, the orbit altitude was about 200 km, each orbit lunar surface width was 60 km, per pixel resolution was 120 m. China's first lunar surface picture was made up from 19-orbit's image, located at longitude 83 to 57 degrees east, latitude 70 to 54 degrees south, the mosaic image's width is 280 km, height is 460 km. The 60 km wide square-shape bar on the right of the picture was the first image that captured after the CCD was turned on.)

This is a comparison between Chang'e 1's image and Google Moon:

http://bbs1.people.com.cn/postDetail.do?id...5&boardId=1

Here is a bigger version of the image:

http://news.sina.com.cn/pc/2007-11-26/326/419.html

I assume they mean Pushbroom like MOC, HRSC, HiRIS etc.

Doug

yaohua2000, thank you so much for the link to the full-resolution image and the translation of the text!

Here's a question: the full-resolution image is a color JPEG. Is the image actually a color image or a grayscale one? I'm pretty sure it's grayscale, but thought I'd check with wiser image processors...comparing the channels, there seems to be no more than 3-4 DN variation between them, but I know that the Moon is a gray place and am wondering if such small variations in DN could be an artifact of the JPEG compression.

--Emily

Does that photo show the Biela crater and surroundings?

I'm just tracking that down now. With comparisons to the Lunar Orbiter atlas, I find:

The 66-kilometer-diameter crater Gill is just to the lower right of center in this image. Cut off at the upper left side is 91-kilometer Pontecoulant. At the bottom edge is 94-kilometer Helmholtz.

See
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_or...n/info.shtml?86
and
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_or.../info.shtml?524

--Emily

I am not sure, but I think it is colorized. However, it also may be a color image balanced around an arbitrary neutral point and with most variation in color beyond the limits of discernment. The color variations don't seem to recognize the dark mare material boundaries (or any morphological features), which leads me to say it is colorized. However, it could be that it is truly a color image of a relatively colorless scene, in which case the variations are due to instrument noise.

Here's an interesting piece of news from Xinhua (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/02/content_7187500.htm)

Data from Chinese lunar orbiter available to all
SHANGHAI, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Scientists and astronomy enthusiasts all over the country all have access to data sent back from China's first lunar orbiter Chang'e-I, a leading scientist in the program said here Sunday.
Ouyang Ziyuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and chief scientist of the lunar exploration program, said at present the scientific instruments on board Chang'e-1 have all gone into operation and the satellite is sending back 3 trillion of data per second. The total data volume will reach 28 T (1 T is equivalent to 1,000 G) next year.
"The money used for the Chang'e project comes from the taxpayers and, therefore, the data should also be made public. Any scientist or astronomy lover can apply to the state in accordance with certain procedures to obtain data he needs," Ouyang said.


It seems that you need to be a Chinese citizen to have access to the data. The article doesn't mention what are the "certain procedures" to follow in order to obtain the data. Any Chinese UMSF member care to look into this?

I see that a lot of news agencies today seem to be running with the story that China's lunar photo is a fake. The news report is based on internet rumors which say its a copy of a photo taken in 2005 by NASA

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...3/wchina103.xml

The two are obviously not the same image, and if confirmed, that extra crater is an astonishing find.

Doug

The 'new' crater doesn't look at all fresh in the high resolution version. Is is a bad seam in the mosaic? I can't see any other evidence of a bad seam, but it might be.

Phil

Well, this photo is obviously *not* fake, because it's difficult to "Photoshop" the angles of the shadows.

And I don't think this is the right place to discuss conspiracy theories. I'm tired of this awful Apollo Moon Hoax, because the situation in Bulgaria is bad enough and every time I start to talk about astronautics I get the same - the "Americans never went to the Moon." I really don't want to hear any more rumours that even unmanned Moon missions are fake.
I have a web site that was supposed to be dedicated to spaceflight. Now it's a place to debunk hoax theories and it's sad that people believe in this nonsence.

Also, what NASA spacecraft would have taken a picture in 2005? Perhaps they refer to a Clementine mosaic released in 2005 -- is that it? I think that they are in fact showing part of the Clementine base map.

Here is an original Clementine image (not from the base map) of the same area. It's a 750 nm UVVIS image. (Source)
Click to view attachment

The Telegraph article showed a crop from a low-res version of the Chang'e image. Here is a crop from the full-res Chang'e image, which does indeed seem to show a new feature in the position highlighted in the article. What do you think, Phil?
Click to view attachment

A closeup on the area:
Click to view attachment

My two cents: look how much more detail is visible in the Chang'e image, even though they are at similar resolutions, and even though the Chang'e image has been JPEG-compressed, while the Clementine one is original data presented in GIF format, so it's losslessly compressed...

--Emily

Aha -- I figured it out! The apparent new feature is a result of an image seam, as Phil suggested. Here's a sloppily reconstructed version.

Click to view attachment

--Emily

It is clearly a double image of the same crater, caused by improper assembly of the mosaic - this is common on early releases in a mission.. On the new image, you may notice that the crater within the crater on the left side is visible, just as in the Clementine image, but the crater abruptly fades out to the right. On the "upper crater" in China's new image, the crater fades out at about the same place horizontally in the image, which in this case is on the left side. If you look at the little crater along the rim at the 2:00 position, it is in exactly the same place in both images. Looking below the crater, you will also notice the slightly diagonal (close to vertical) little trough visible in the Clementine image is also double.

You beat me to it while I was typing

Bravo...not only imagesmiths, but imagesleuths! Well done, Emily & Ted!

I found cool 3-D images taken by Chang'e at a Chinese news site:
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-12-02/150914433606.shtml

Alan Boyle, MSNBC's science blogger, offers Emily some well-deserved kudos for her sleuthing and her characteristically clear and persuasive write-up, which should be definitive.

TTT

msnbc cosmic log says: "Lakdawalla's explanation would be embarrassing for Beijing, but it makes the most sense as the solution to this week's moon photo mystery."

I wouldn't want to be the poor guy who processed that image...

amazing story on the blog Emily. well done! This kind of stuff really brings solar system exploration to your own living room!

Actually I think whoever processed the image did a nice job -- it's a really pretty product. If anyone should feel embarassment it's the chief scientist who pointed out that feature as a new crater, but really even that wouldn't have been a big deal if it hadn't been wrapped up in the fakery story. It's like that first Viking photo that was erroneously given a blue sky. A mistake early in a mission that can be fixed later -- but unfortunately not before it spawns a million conspiracy theories.

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I think the lesson here is that when there are whole data sets available on the Internet in an unprocessed format, it's not hard for regular people to argue against conspiracy theories. I think the Chinese might benefit from posting some of the original image strips in question so you can see what the raw materials were for their beautiful image.

--Emily

.

New Chang-e 1 images here:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/...ent_7221256.htm

(go to page 3 for the new item, the Alphonsus area of the central nearside)


Come on Kaggers! They're going to ovetake you in the PR stakes.

Phil

With a little help from some Chinese readers I found a couple other interesting sites with images.

Here's a different view of the first image released:
Click to view attachment
(From here)

And a large gallery of interesting images, graphs, etc (unfortunately with large watermarks) here.

Anybody want to wade through it with Google translator and see what we're looking at?

--Emily

Here's a pretty image:
http://www.clep.org.cn/index.asp?modelname...ng&recno=24
Click to view attachment
The Google translation of the caption is less than clear.
Can any of you who read Chinese help? Has this image been posted elsewhere at higher resolution?

--Emily

Full inline quote removed --Emily

It has also been posted here http://www.lpod.org/?m=20071212

Here's a link to a new Chang-e 1 image. A polar region. Only a low res version initially, but it should come out at full resolution soon. Maybe our Cinese colleagues can help us find it.

Phil Stooke


http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615708/n620172/n67...578/143044.html

Nothing new 'Made in China' since last week?
Well at least we'll have Chandrayaan-1 (India) passing the Moon next April and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (USA) taking a look at the South Pole by November of this year...

A very happy New Year to all our Chinese members! It seems singularly appropriate to this board that it should now be the Year of the RAT

(PhilCo, this may be why there has not been much news lately from the East. You don't get much out of the West over Christmas holidays either.)

--Emily

Chang'e-2 to be launched around 2009

A hint from a source I cannot identify... that Chang-e 1 may be having data transmission difficulties. I don't know if this means on the spacecraft itself, though it sounds like it. To be honest I know nothing, but this statement is circulating.

Phil

where are the promised 3d-stereo-images? at least anaglyphs?
michael przewrocki

Only fair to add now that the hints I spoke of may have been wrong! Sorry about that.

As for the stereo etc. - you can expect to wait years for that, except for occasional press releases or big conferences.

Phil

This short article on Xinhua news agency about Chang-e:
China almost done with map of moon surface

I'm wondering if we will ever see any pictures.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_To...1_Data_999.html

That's interesting...

Where to expect the information?

Sounds like it'll be a fairly controlled release. I wouldn't hold my breath.

They planned to release something during the Games ...

Well, almost two weeks passed, and nothing new...

I remember a while back that someone found that one of the Chang'e 1 images of the lunar surface was doctored up a little. I wonder how accurate this "700 hours" of data would be. But then again, I desperately want a nice lunar map for Celestia...

The information is being sent
I don't know which would be harder, getting the information from the Chinese, or the ESA.

The seams between imaging strips were blended in to make the result more aesthetically pleasing. The pointing/position knowledge wasn't good enough to do this automatically at that point in time.

You'd be surprised how much many of the other space images are "doctored" before release.

This one might work for the time being, based on Clementine data...

http://laps.noaa.gov/albers/sos/sos.html#MOON

Steve

full inline quote removed

That's the one I use currently. I'm hoping once LRO is finished, we can get a better map. I mean not to devalue your work, you do a lot of good work with your maps and I do appreciate it. I'm one of those, though, that wants to be able to see gum on the sidewalk in my virtual textures for Celestia.

My Earth texture is 32,000 x 16,000 px (if anyone knows where to find one that is larger, please say something). I deeply desire a lunar map of similar proportions with excellent resolution. I figure that a 32,000 x 16,000 px map for the moon should give a resolution of somewhere around 300 m per pixel.

I guess the thing to do is head over to the USGS Map-a-planet and download a bunch of pictures and stitch them together later, lol. I'll go do that now.

I found new toys at the USGS site. If anyone wants a 16,384 x 8,192 px map of the moon, you can get it here until Aug 20.
http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/order/I_Am_Aliv...moon00n000.html

Thanks for your comments Hungry...

I usually stick to 8K maps as that is the biggest I can easily produce and/or display (e.g. with Celestia). Good to know about the larger moon one at the USGS, and the potential with the Chinese probe data.

I think the Blue Marble Next Generation from NASA would be a good one to check for Earth. It supposedly goes up to 500m resolution, so if that's true it would be quite a lot of pixels.

Steve

I happen to have a 20K x 10k map (same Clementine/USGS Map A Planet source) lying around from an attempt to create a moon overlay for Google Earth; I have uploaded it in case it will be of use to anyone (it's centered 180 degrees off from the USGS ones, and is too big (104 Mb) for me to edit).

http://www.transferbigfiles.com/Get.aspx?i...a0-5913890be569

It should be available until the 28th.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/...nt_10347379.htm

Chang-e's big global photomosaic on dispay. Let's hope we get to see it online at some point.

Phil

Here's a bigger version

http://images.spaceref.com/news/2008/chinamoonmap.l.jpg

Phil

Forgive my ignorance - but if it ever gets 'out' of China - will this represent a better base map than, for example, the Clementine stuff on map-a-planet?

Doug