How to Be an Armchair Planetary Scientist

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How to Be an Armchair Planetary Scientist

• A brief guide to online image data from planetary
  missions
• Emily Lakdawalla
• The Planetary Society

Image NASA / JPL / Ted Stryk
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Its a great time to be an armchair space
explorer

• Rapid release of raw image data is now norm
• High-speed Internet common
• Digital cameras mainstream
• More people have image processing skills
• Forums, blogs, YouTube, etc. facilitate sharing

Image NASA / JPL / SSI / Emily Lakdawalla
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Where can amateurs get data?

• Many missions have special raw image websites
• Current missions include Mars Exploration
  Rovers, Cassini, and Phoenix
• Data release is automated
• After being received on Earth, data is usually
  contrast-enhanced and converted to JPEG format
• These allow amateurs to follow missions in real
  time, along with science teams

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What can you do with raw images?

• Answer What is Cassini (or Phoenix) doing
  today?
• Crop, play with brightness/contrast to make
  pretty pictures
• Make animations
• Make mosaics
• Make color images out of three separate images
  taken through different filters

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Three Cassini images taken on Saturday, May 30

• Tiny little moons in great big frame, overexposed
• Crop and adjust levels to bring out detail

Images NASA / JPL / SSI
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Three Cassini images, made prettier
Images NASA / JPL / SSI / Emily Lakdawalla
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Making animations

• Many spacecraft take time-series of images,
  usually separated in time by one or more minutes
• Cassini Saturn cloud motions, F ring patterns,
  moons passing each other, moon flybys
• Rovers Hazcams and Navcams take images during
  drives and during arm operations
• Phoenix many images of arm motions and motion of
  wind vane
• These dont make smooth movies.
• They do make neat animations.

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Do-it-yourself animation in Powerpoint Phoenix
arm deployment (frame 1 / 6)
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Do-it-yourself animation in Powerpoint Phoenix
arm deployment (frame 2 / 6)
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Do-it-yourself animation in Powerpoint Phoenix
arm deployment (frame 3 / 6)
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Do-it-yourself animation in Powerpoint Phoenix
arm deployment (frame 4 / 6)
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Do-it-yourself animation in Powerpoint Phoenix
arm deployment (frame 5 / 6)
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Do-it-yourself animation in Powerpoint Phoenix
arm deployment (frame 6 / 6)
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Phoenix sol 3 arm deployment animation

• 6 frames
• Assembled into an animated GIF using Photoshop

Image NASA / JPL / UA / Emily Lakdawalla
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Hyperion rotation animation

• Cassini, 500,000-km flyby
• 6 frames

Image NASA / JPL / SSI / Justin Phillips
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Titan, Dione, and Saturn

• 16 frames, artificially colorized

Image NASA / JPL / SSI / Gordan Ugarkovic
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Making Mosaics

• When things dont fit into one picture, they take
  several for later assembly

Images NASA / JPL / SSI
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Making Mosaics
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Making Mosaics
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Making Mosaics
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Making Mosaics
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Making Color Images

• Spacecraft do not carry color cameras.
• Spacecraft camera detectors detect a broad range
  of wavelengths of light.
• To get color information, a filter is placed in
  front of the camera that only lets in photons of
  a narrow color range.
• To make a color picture, you need three such
  images, taken through different filters.
• Red, green, and blue filter images give you
  approximate true color.

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Making color images

• Phoenix calibration target
• Each chip a different color or gray
• Left red filter middle green right blue

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Making color images
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PhoenixSol 2 postcard

• Assembled from raw images taken in red, green,
  and blue filters

Image NASA / JPL / UA / James Canvin
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Go out and play with pictures!

• Phoenix http//phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu
• Cassini http//saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
• Rovers http//marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov
• For the rovers, get the Midnight Mars Browser
  auto-downloader and virtual reality panorama
  builder http//midnightmarsbrowser.blogspot.com
• To share images and ask for tips, go to
  http//unmannedpaceflight.com