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From the Moon to Earth in HD

Lucas123 writes "The Japan Space Agency's Kaguya spacecraft is currently orbiting the moon and its equipment is being tested in preparation for its real mission to map the moon with high-definition images later this month. Almost as an afterthought, the space craft has recreated one of the most memorable photos in the history of spaceflight — an Earth-rise from lunar orbit."

5 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not in HD by hansamurai · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was able to find two HD pictures:

    http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/image/communication/img_071114_01.jpg
    http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/image/communication/img_071114_02.jpg

    1920x1080

    Couldn't find anything else though. Disappointing.

  2. Re:Not in HD by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Informative

    For comparison, the original.

    http://dayton.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/LARGE/GPN-2001-000009.jpg

    The older image appears to be higher resolution.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  3. Some movies by wooferhound · · Score: 4, Informative
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    We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
  4. Re:Apollo by Chosen+Reject · · Score: 4, Informative
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    Stop Global Warming!
    Just say no to irreversible processes!
  5. Public Relations by iamlucky13 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The HD camera on SELENE is a PR instrument. Video is useful for things that change. The moon, for the most part, does not change, and the HD camera does not produce scientifically useful images of the moon. SELENE can only take about a minute worth of video.

    High Definition as a proper noun generally refers to 1920x1080 resolution, but the various space agencies have produced much higher resolution images for years. The 35mm film shot during the Apollo missions is being scanned into 3070x2044 pixel images, for example, and the medium format film is being scanned at a huge 12800x12800 pixels. The Mars rovers carry 1 MP (1024 x 1024) cameras, and the images are often stitched together into far larger mosaics. I've seen some that even as JPG's take up over 100 MB (and crash IE). The Hubble Space Telescope's highest resolution camera is also only 1024x1024 pixels, and I believe this was chosen to approximate the maximum resolution of the optics, but again, large mosaics are common.

    The High Resolution Imaging Scientific Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter takes a different approach and is what's called a "push broom camera." Instead of taking rectangular pictures every so often, it scans a single line of up to 20,000 pixels continuously at the rate the spacecraft moves over the ground. In this way it builds up images up to 40,000 pixels long (800 megapixels...now that's high def!), at which point the file has to be transmitted to earth or the camera runs out of memory.