Image Sets  30 April, 2010 07:59

New Images From 30 April 2010 Added

10-120_07.21.04_VMC_Img_No_3.pngNew images have been posted to the image database. These images are from the VMC observation on 30 April 2010, for more details on this observation hit the "Full Story" link below. To access the images click the link below. Also you can access the Celestia file to see where the images were captured and access the raw data in the zip file (for more details see Help us with the VMC)



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Image Sets  29 April, 2010 11:00

Updated Images From 29 April 2010 Added

10-119_10.22.08_VMC_Img_No_3.pngUpdated images have been posted to the image database. These images are from the VMC observation on 29 April 2010, for more details on this observation hit the "Full Story" link below. To access the images click the link below. Also you can access the Celestia file to see where the images were captured and access the raw data in the zip file (for more details see Help us with the VMC)



29/04/2010 10:20-11:00 Gallery

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Image Sets  29 April, 2010 10:55

New Images From 29 April 2010 Added

10-119_10.22.08_VMC_Img_No_3.pngNew images have been posted to the image database. These images are from the VMC observation on 29 April 2010, for more details on this observation hit the "Full Story" link below. To access the images click the link below. Also you can access the Celestia file to see where the images were captured and access the raw data in the zip file (for more details see Help us with the VMC)



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Image Sets  28 April, 2010 07:01

New Images From 28 April 2010 Added

10-118_06.23.40_VMC_Img_No_3.pngNew images have been posted to the image database. These images are from the VMC observation on 28 April 2010, for more details on this observation hit the "Full Story" link below. To access the images click the link below. Also you can access the Celestia file to see where the images were captured and access the raw data in the zip file (for more details see Help us with the VMC)



28/04/2010 06:22-07:01 Gallery

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Image Sets  26 April, 2010 05:55

New Images From 26 April 2010 Added

10-116_05.26.21_VMC_Img_No_3.pngNew images have been posted to the image database. These images are from the VMC observation on 26 April 2010, for more details on this observation hit the "Full Story" link below. To access the images click the link below. Also you can access the Celestia file to see where the images were captured and access the raw data in the zip file (for more details see Help us with the VMC)



26/04/2010 05:24-05:55 Gallery

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March 19, 2009 Cloud Detail (Personal Project for 100 Hours of Astronomy, April 2-5 IYA2009) To make this image, several MEX-VMC images acquired on March 19, 2008 were used, specifically: 09-078_19.26.32_VMC_Img_No_2.png, 09-078_19.27.25_VMC_Img_No_3.png, 09-078_19.29.12_VMC_Img_No_5.png and 09-078_19.30.05_VMC_Img_No_6.png. All the images were aligned and resized in Photoshop. The two darkest images, No. 2 and No. 6 were averaged (No 2 at 50% opacity). Contrast was adjusted to bring out cloud detail in the non-overexposed region. Then image No. 3 was added to the stack, and a fuzzy layer mask added to image No. 3 that corresponded to the overexposed portion of image No. 3, yet would allow the grays of the No. 2/No. 6 combination image to show through. Next, the brightest image No. 5 was added, with a fuzzy layer mask added that corresponded to the overexposed portion of image No. 5, yet would allow the grays of No. 3 (and also No. 2/No. 6 combination) image to show through. This stack was contrast enhanced using curves and levels. This image was then Gaussian blurred gently (0.4 pixel), then an Unsharp mask was applied. Residual color information was removed using a Black & White adjustment layer. A camera artifact near the crescent edge was removed using clone stamp and a Gaussian blur of a selected region. Finally, a second contrast adjustment was performed using Curves and Levels. With this technique, the full detail of the cloud patterns observed by the MEX-VMC camera can be revealed across the crescent Mars. Mike Malaska Chapel Hill, North Carolina USA Credit: ESA/H. Griebel/MOLA/Google Public submission by Martin Ahr: I have created an animation from a VMC image series that was made on November 5, 2009. It shows what I believe to be clouds onto which the sun starts shining as the rotation of Mars brings them towards the sunlit side. There are clouds which appear to move also in a direction transverse to the direction of rotation of Mars, and some seem to disappear as the sun starts shining on them. For each frame of the animation, I combined three images from one of the exposure bracketing series into one HDR image. I tried to also use the fourth image having the shortest exposure time. However, the HDR program I used could not combine this image with the other three images, probably because the difference in brightness between the image and the other three images is very large. Since the sunlit side of Mars is overexposed in all three images used, it remains overexposed. However, the dynamic range of the HDR image is sufficient to cover the entire brightness range of the clouds. I then took the logarithm of the brightness values of the pixels in each HDR image to obtain images that can be displayed on a monitor while still showing the full dynamic range of the HDR images. Thereafter, I shifted the images such that Mars it at substantially the same position in each image, combined the images into an animation and rotated the animation such that the sunlight shines from the right. I tried several orientations, and, in my opinion, this one looks most natural. Unfortunately, Mars is moving out of the camera's field of view at the end of the series. Since the clouds are not shown any more in images No. 30 and later, I omitted these images. In the remaining images, I made the cut off portions transparent (which can be seen in the animation at the upper right part of Mars). GIF images can comprise only 256 different colors. Therefore, I converted the images to grayscale. This does not make much difference, since the color saturation in the original images is so low that colors are almost invisible. I used three computer programs for the processing: Fitswork for reading the raw data, extracting color information from Bayer patterns, shifting images and calculating logarithms of brightness values; FDRTools Basic for creating HDR images; and Gimp for combining the images into an animation, minor adjustment of the brightness of individual images and rotating the animation. This is a list of the VMC images used for the animation: Frame 1: 09-309_19.02.06_VMC_Img_No_3.raw,09-309_19.02.59_VMC_Img_No_4.raw,09-309_19.03.53_VMC_Img_No_5.raw; Frame 2: 09-309_19.05.39_VMC_Img_No_7.raw,09-309_19.06.33_VMC_Img_No_8.raw,09-309_19.07.26_VMC_Img_No_9.raw; Frame 3: 09-309_19.09.13_VMC_Img_No_11.raw,09-309_19.10.06_VMC_Img_No_12.raw,09-309_19.10.59_VMC_Img_No_13.raw; Frame 4: 09-309_19.12.46_VMC_Img_No_15.raw,09-309_19.13.39_VMC_Img_No_16.raw,09-309_19.14.33_VMC_Img_No_17.raw; Frame 5: 09-309_19.16.19_VMC_Img_No_19.raw,09-309_19.17.13_VMC_Img_No_20.raw,09-309_19.18.06_VMC_Img_No_21.raw; Frame 6: 09-309_19.19.53_VMC_Img_No_23.raw,09-309_19.20.46_VMC_Img_No_24.raw,09-309_19.21.39_VMC_Img_No_25.raw; Frame 7: 09-309_19.23.26_VMC_Img_No_27.raw,09-309_19.24.19_VMC_Img_No_28.raw,09-309_19.25.13_VMC_Img_No_29.raw. Image Credit: Martin Ahr, ESA Sixty-four Views of Mars from Mars Express VMC || The Mars Webcam (more officially known as the Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera or VMC) has been capturing global views of Mars for the public since October 2007. These 64 images were taken between July 2 and November 15, 2008 and July 1 and August 15, 2009. This image is available as an 11-by-17-inch poster from The Planetary Society Store. Credit: Data courtesy of ESA / processing by Emily Lakdawalla. HDR Super-resolution MEX-VMC image of Valles Marineris (Mars) || Valles Marineris Mars composite image assembled from Mars Express