So, should I tell what I have heard from a former member of the image processing team during Viking?
He was in the team at Ames which created true color images (same colorization as my images) after they saw teh badly red colorized ones from JPL.
"When X send the pictures to the viking imaging director at JPL, a note came back saying that his face went white after seeing these images. Later at the press conference before christmas '76, that director critized one of the AMES guys of having showed these true color blue skies pictures to the press."
And there are other whitnesses telling the very same story! For example Ron Leven, son of Gilbert Levin, Primary Investigator of Viking labeled release experiment! Read his words on http://www.mufor.org/dipietro3.html
The PanCam isn't that useful for scientists, quite the contrary what JPL/NASA is telling you. It's main purpose is to deliver true color images, and for that it wasn't used that far up to today!
How I can say this? Show me scientific papers dealing with results of the Pathfinder PanCam (IMP). There are no to be noteworthy which make use of all that IR filters!
You are in a way correct. The filters used so far for socalled color pictures from Spirit Rover are made with the L2, L5, and L6 filters of the wheel. That means 750nm, 530 and 480. That is only an approximation for true colory pictures as we know them for example from Digital Cameras on Earth which use mostly 650, 530 and 450nm.
HOWEVER, there is ONE single image on Mars taken yet with the correct RGB filters L3, L5, L7 (650nm, 530, 440) which is the sundial!
So, can anyone tell me, why JPL is not using the correct filters to present a true color picture of the surface after one full week?
... because brightness on images if relative. Your eyes/brain adept to the current absolute brightness so the absolute brightness of the image is irrelevant. On the original data (right of the large images) you see, that the sky ad midday is about half to one third the brightness as on Earth the same local time. If you were on the surface of Mars, you could not decide if you were on Mars or on Earth in 20-30km above surface, beside of the local position of course.
Please, first look/think than write;-) On the two first large color images on my page, you can easily see two color calibration charts on each of them. The small white/black/red/green/blue charts. These charts itself are sufficient to produce a color-quality you expect from a photo-lab for holiday pictures. If you want to have more precise colors, you need scientific data about these charts, or a calibrated copy of them. Both seems to be not available from AMES/JPL/NASA, you can guess for which reason... For the same reason, they deliberatly "forgot" the color-charts on the Pathfinder mission, thought there are ISO-norms for scanner-CCD-cams used there. Instead of this, they placed undefined pastell colored spots on the Lander!
The calibration charts are a very hot topic at AMES/JPL/NASA. So hot, they "forgot" them on the Pathfinder Mission! I cannot understand, why they didnt not put an ISO-colorchart on the Pathfinder-Lander. This is not excusable in any scientific way! I have images from the Viking-Lander taken on Earth which show the calibration charts in Earth light, but cannot get any scientific information about the charts. The aim is not to start detailed frequency analysis on the light on Mars, I just want to give an impression how an human would see it when standing on the surface himself. The quality I want to achieve is comparable with that you expect from a photo-lab for you holiday pictures. And for that quality, the calibration charts and all data we have is sufficient.
So, I got my old login back. Please do not use the plastic-casing for calibration, use the calibrations charts which are place on the lander. If you want to discuss, join #bluemars on EFnet
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So, should I tell what I have heard from a former member of the image processing team during Viking?
He was in the team at Ames which created true color images (same colorization as my images) after they saw teh badly red colorized ones from JPL.
"When X send the pictures to the viking imaging director at JPL, a note came back saying that his face went white after seeing these images. Later at the press conference before christmas '76, that director critized one of the AMES guys of having showed these true color blue skies pictures to the press."
And there are other whitnesses telling the very same story! For example Ron Leven, son of Gilbert Levin, Primary Investigator of Viking labeled release experiment!
Read his words on http://www.mufor.org/dipietro3.html
That sounds logic, as Cornell also published the only official color pictures from Odyssey THEMIS.
But wait, they wrote below these pictures:
"additional processing and final color balance by space artist Don Davis."
That's funny. Like a previous poster wrote, that's the same procedure as 19th century painters in Egypt as they hadn't color photography at that time.
The PanCam isn't that useful for scientists, quite the contrary what JPL/NASA is telling you. It's main purpose is to deliver true color images, and for that it wasn't used that far up to today!
How I can say this? Show me scientific papers dealing with results of the Pathfinder PanCam (IMP). There are no to be noteworthy which make use of all that IR filters!
You are in a way correct.
The filters used so far for socalled color pictures from Spirit Rover are made with the L2, L5, and L6 filters of the wheel. That means 750nm, 530 and 480. That is only an approximation for true colory pictures as we know them for example from Digital Cameras on Earth which use mostly 650, 530 and 450nm.
HOWEVER, there is ONE single image on Mars taken yet with the correct RGB filters L3, L5, L7 (650nm, 530, 440) which is the sundial!
So, can anyone tell me, why JPL is not using the correct filters to present a true color picture of the surface after one full week?
... because brightness on images if relative. Your eyes/brain adept to the current absolute brightness so the absolute brightness of the image is irrelevant. On the original data (right of the large images) you see, that the sky ad midday is about half to one third the brightness as on Earth the same local time. If you were on the surface of Mars, you could not decide if you were on Mars or on Earth in 20-30km above surface, beside of the local position of course.
Please, first look/think than write ;-) On the two first large color images on my page, you can easily see two color calibration charts on each of them. The small white/black/red/green/blue charts. These charts itself are sufficient to produce a color-quality you expect from a photo-lab for holiday pictures. If you want to have more precise colors, you need scientific data about these charts, or a calibrated copy of them. Both seems to be not available from AMES/JPL/NASA, you can guess for which reason... For the same reason, they deliberatly "forgot" the color-charts on the Pathfinder mission, thought there are ISO-norms for scanner-CCD-cams used there. Instead of this, they placed undefined pastell colored spots on the Lander!
The calibration charts are a very hot topic at AMES/JPL/NASA. So hot, they "forgot" them on the Pathfinder Mission! I cannot understand, why they didnt not put an ISO-colorchart on the Pathfinder-Lander. This is not excusable in any scientific way! I have images from the Viking-Lander taken on Earth which show the calibration charts in Earth light, but cannot get any scientific information about the charts. The aim is not to start detailed frequency analysis on the light on Mars, I just want to give an impression how an human would see it when standing on the surface himself. The quality I want to achieve is comparable with that you expect from a photo-lab for you holiday pictures. And for that quality, the calibration charts and all data we have is sufficient.
So, I got my old login back. Please do not use the plastic-casing for calibration, use the calibrations charts which are place on the lander. If you want to discuss, join #bluemars on EFnet
I corrected this. See the filter-curves on the same page. if you want to talk about this, join IRC-channel #bluemars on EFnet