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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."
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.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
i thought it might have HD time-lapse of the earth rising... instead it just has some composite images of same at smaller resolution. I was all ready with my 2001-2010 quotes and music and everything!
stuff |
For comparison, the original.
http://dayton.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/LARGE/GPN-2001-000009.jpg
The older image appears to be higher resolution.
liqbase
I'm curious if they'll be able to see the Apollo landing sites. Have we had a look at them since we left? That would be the first place I'd visit if I landed on the moon - there ought to be some interesting data available from the materials left out in baking space for 30-odd years.
12:50 - press return.
These are obvious fakes! Everyone knows the moon doesn't exist and was just made as a fake destination so America could fake a landing on its surface to beat the Soviets!
Top that crazy conspiracy theory!
There's an interesting phenomenon that most people don't consider. Since the moon rotates about its axis at the same period as its orbit, the earth always appears at the same place in the sky when viewed from a given location on the surface of the moon (unless of course you were on the "dark" side of the moon).
That would be incredibly useful for navigation!
The article seemed to misstate this fact:
Since the moon's rotation matches the Earth's rotation of the sun, the Earth will always appear to be in the same spot if seen by an astronaut standing on the moon.
Doesn't that infer the moon's rotation is 365.25 days?
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Look on this page for High Res Pics
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071113_kaguya_e.html#pict01
and these movies of EarthRise and EarthSet
http://space.jaxa.jp/movie/20071113_kaguya_movie01_e.html
http://space.jaxa.jp/movie/20071113_kaguya_movie02_e.html
We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
More shots from the sequence scanned at approx 2400x2400 resolution.
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.
I looked at the two screenshots. The spatial resolution at 1:1 isn't so hot on that camera, but hey it's orbiting the moon, so can't ask for much more right now. It will also look better in motion. Hopefully I can get the Discovery HD program somehow.
Comparing to the medium format still footage by Apollo's Bill Anders (Whom I've had the pleasure of briefly meeting when he was flying a P51 around here recently), Bill's photos are exposed more for the lunar surface than the earth. It appears that the white clouds of earth are overexposed when the moon is in correct exposure, at least in the one shot linked above. The HD camera probably has a comparable or a little less exposure leniency depending on whether the Apollo cameras used slide or negative film. (I think they were slide?)
The JAXA footage has the earth exposed nicely and the moon is out of peak range, with most features deep in a medium grey. This has an advantage of bringing out the contour features on the lunar surface better. Also, seeing the progression of sunrise really looks interesting with no atmosphere. Landing on the moon at the perpetual twilight line would give one unlimited time to walk around and frame the earth against numerous lunar features. With the enlarged size of the earth, it will take less telephoto length to capture it at a reasonable size in the frame.
--Mike