From the Moon to Earth in HD 156
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."
Re:Not in HD (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/image/communication/img_071114_01.jpg [selene.jaxa.jp]
http://www.selene.jaxa.jp/image/communication/img_071114_02.jpg [selene.jaxa.jp]
1920x1080
Couldn't find anything else though. Disappointing.
Re:Not in HD (Score:5, Informative)
http://dayton.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/LARGE/GPN-2001-000009.jpg [nasa.gov]
The older image appears to be higher resolution.
Re:Not in HD (Score:2, Informative)
Here's some real HD... (Score:2, Informative)
http://history.nasa.gov/ap08fj/photos/b/as08-14-2383.jpg [nasa.gov]
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/mars_surface_vik2_big.jpg [nasa.gov]
http://oursun.open.ac.uk/images/jupiterp_cassini_full.jpg [open.ac.uk]
What makes this new "first HD camera in space" so special (yes, I know the Apollo images are shot on film, but Viking and Voyager had video cameras)?
Some movies (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071113_kaguya_e.html#pict01 [www.jaxa.jp]
and these movies of EarthRise and EarthSet
http://space.jaxa.jp/movie/20071113_kaguya_movie01_e.html [space.jaxa.jp]
http://space.jaxa.jp/movie/20071113_kaguya_movie02_e.html [space.jaxa.jp]
Re:Apollo (Score:4, Informative)
on TV in HD today (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Earth doesn't move (Score:3, Informative)
No. If you thing of the earth and moon as orbiting each other, the earth could be considered in geostationary orbit. The earth and moon as they circle each other has the same side of the moon facing the earth at all times.
http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/essential/earthspace/session7/closer1.html [learner.org]
Orbital period (days) 27.32166
Rotational period (days) 27.32166
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon.htm [solarviews.com]
The moon has about 13 days a year.
Re:So what? (Score:3, Informative)
Public Relations (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Apollo (Score:1, Informative)
CCD(1920x1080)
Fixed lenses (T: tele camera, W: wide camera)
FoV T: 51.23(horizontal) 30.17(vertical)
W: 15.60(horizontal) 8.80(vertical)
So if I'm doing this right then,
T: tan(51.23*pi/180)*100km/1920 = 64.8m/pixel (horizontal)
tan(30.17*pi/180)*100km/1080 = 53.8m/pixel (vertical)
W: tan(15.60*pi/180)*100km/1920 = 14.5m/pixel (horizontal)
tan( 8.80*pi/180)*100km/1080 = 14.3m/pixel (vertical)
Neither anywhere near 3m^2.
-brandon
Max resolution (Score:2, Informative)
Re:here we go again.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The Earth never rises from the Moon (Score:3, Informative)