‘
Got a few minutes? Then check out Emily Lakdawalla’s always-fun Planetary blog, where she has some big images of the paths the rovers have taken over the past two years. Bear in mind, they were only supposed to last for three months! People complain about NASA cost overruns, but forget that sometimes good engineering can save you money too.
After you’ve seen that, check out these images from SMART-1 which is orbiting the Moon. It has a 3D anaglyph! It’s the one displayed above, but bigger. I love those. I have several pairs of red/green glasses just in case one pops up.’
April 6th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Hey, that’s great! I love the Mars rover maps. It would be neat if one of these days, someone put together a Flash-based (or whatever) simulator that would let you follow the rovers’ paths, from the rover’s perspective.
April 6th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
I have a pair of the red/green glasses. Which works best? Red over the left eye and green over the right or vice-versa? I tried both and in the red-left the scence seemed sunken into the screen while the other seemed that the image was ‘slightly’ in fron, but not as dramatically as the other combination.
Also, with the image as it is, I keep seeing the craters as mounds. I’ll have to download the image and rotate it (!) and look at it again!!
April 6th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
On the SMART-1 site it says use the red filter on your left eye.
April 6th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Thanks for the link, Phil; I want to make sure that credit is given where it’s due to another Phil, Phil Stooke, for producing those lovely rover maps!
April 7th, 2006 at 7:12 am
Leon: have fun http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/m2k4/driverover/frameset.html
April 7th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Fjordan Asked if the 3-D colored anaglyph glasses should be left-red or right-red. The standard is alway LEFT-RED. The dictionary definition is this way. If they are backwards it destroys the 3-D effect, creating pseudostereo, where far objects appear close & vice-versa.
I have seen it transmitted the wrong way. ABC-TV did it backwards about 8 yrs ago on several programs, but the glasses they gave away at Wendy’s were also reversed & the effect came out OK. I call this backwards system “phylgana,” thats “anaglyph” backwards.
Tom Reesor
Conway, SC
April 7th, 2006 at 7:49 am
Try your local comic book store.
April 7th, 2006 at 8:03 am
Thanks, Paolo! That looks really cool!
April 7th, 2006 at 9:14 am
If you click on the anaglygh that Phil posted it goes to the ESA web page where there are a few more pictures. Take a look at the topmost picture. It is an animated GIF labeled “Reiner Gamma swirl: magnetic effect of a cometary impact?” I see something moving (apparently) on the surface as it steps through the frames. It looks like a shadow to me. It is subtle. Look at the center of the frame and just to the left. Any conjectures? Shadow of the probe?
April 7th, 2006 at 10:15 am
PsyberDave– I see it. This is a fairly common effect caused by something inside the camera itself, usually a piece of dust. It’s out of focus, but note that it moves around as the image does too. That’s always a tip-off it’s in the camera. Generally you can diminish things like that by taking what’s called a “flat field” image, which eliminates or greatly reduces camera effects, but it’s not always perfect. I talk about flat fields on a page I wrote about Hubble.
April 7th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
This is a fairly common effect caused by something inside the camera itself, usually a piece of dust. It’s out of focus, but note that it moves around as the image does too. That’s always a tip-off it’s in the camera.
Rats, I was hoping it was a flying saucer. (-;
April 8th, 2006 at 1:06 am
The picture looks urinous – and I don’t mean the seventh planet form the Sun.
April 8th, 2006 at 5:13 am
Funny. I keep a pair of anaglyphic glasses handy, too, but mine are blue and red. They seem to work fine for this image. What’s so special about the green and red ones?
April 8th, 2006 at 11:00 am
I don’t care what y’all say. The moon is made of swiss cheese.
April 8th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
For more than 200 Mars anaglyphs …
JPL Planetary PhotoJournal Home Page
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html
Click on “More Query Methods”
Go down to “Search by Feature Name” and search on “3-D”
You will get over 500 images almost all are Earth or Mars
Click on “Refine results further”
Click on “Target” to choose specific planet or moon and then click “Select”