A final post for 2011

The year 2011 has been a busy one for me, and I am resolving to make 2012 a more productive year in terms of image processing.   In the meantime, here is an improved version of the last Voyager 2 image of Ariel prior to near encounter in January 1986.

Processed image Copyright Ted Stryk, Raw Data Courtesy NASA/JPL

A Crescent Callisto

This is a crescent view of Jupiter's moon Callisto taken by Voyager 1 on March 6, 1979.   Many of the pictures that were taken in this dataset smeared or missed Callisto, and all of the images are underexposed.  The smoothness of the day/night terminator is a reminder that for all its craters, Callisto is a very flat world.

Processed image Copyright Ted Stryk, Raw Data Courtesy NASA/JPL

A new version of an earlier Triton mosaic.

A few years ago, I posted this massive installment of Triton images. This is the large, high resolution mosaic seen through a high pass filter to cut down on the effects of illumination differences - such filtering helps to focus on smaller features across the image.

Processed image Copyright Ted Stryk, Raw Data Courtesy NASA/JPL

A (nearly) full Callisto from Voyager 2

This is one of the best full-phased images of Callisto available.  It was taken by Voyager 2 during its 1979 flyby of Jupiter just before Callisto fully filled the field of view of its narrow angle camera.  

Processed Image Copyright Ted Stryk, Raw Data Courtesy NASA/JPL

In Honor of Phobos-Grunt, a View of Halley's Comet from Vega 1

The Russian Space Agency attempted to return to planetary exploration this month with November 8th's launch of Phobos-Grunt.   It would be only the second planetary mission launched by Russia since the demise of the Soviet Union (the first was the ill-fated Mars '96).   It is currently stuck in earth orbit, and whether or not it can be salvaged will be known in the coming day or two at the latest.

This image is a stack of three images taken of the nucleus of Halley's Comet by the Soviet Vega-1 spacecraft as it flew by on March 6, 1986.  The images were badly blurred by optical problems in the camera, so a lot of deconvolution had to be applied.   Bright gets can be seen emanating out of the long, skinny nucleus. 

 

 Processed Image Copyright Ted Stryk, Raw Data Courtesy the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Update:   Phobos-Grunt Status - this does not look good.

Experts assure that "Phobos-Grunt" will not crash on Moscow 

http://www.rosbalt.ru/moscow/2011/11/11/911410.html 

MOSCOW, November 11. In the case of a uncontrolled re-entry, Phobos-Grunt’s inclination allows it to crash into half of Eurasia, but in Moscow is not in the area in which it could crash crash. This is according to  RAI Navosti magazine News of Cosmonautics editor and columnist Igor Lisov.

"Barring a miracle, and experts fail to establish communications with the mission, it will remain out of control. If it is out of control, then there is the option to shoot down with a missile. We know that China and the U.S. have facilities, which can bring down the spacecraft" - said Lisov.

Recall that the launch of the Phobos-Grunt" took place on 9 November 2011. After separation from the booster, the spacecraft went into a parking orbit around the Earth. It then experience a problem, because of what tits propulsion system did not operate and so it did not end up in a transfer orbit to Mars, but remained in near space.

Now ground control is trying to establish communications with the spacecraft; however, it did not respond to commands from Earth. According to specialists, if the spacecraft cannot be saved, then it may fall to Earth on November 26.

A Distant View of Triton

My interest in planetary exploration was born in the 1988-1989 school year.  As a bored fourth-grader, I was paging through my science book when I came across this image .  I refuse to soil my blog with it.  My thought was that there was no way something in nature could be that ugly.   I began to go to local libraries, looking up anything I could find on the planets, trying to figure out what they looked like.  Saturn, it turns out, was a beautiful world, nothing like the picture.  I even talked my parents into getting me a telescope for my birthday.   I spent two hours looking before I finally found Saturn.  It was a beautiful yellow world, encircled by rings, as I had seen in some of the better books I had found.

I began to search libraries for more planetary images, joined the local astronomy club, and began connecting to BBS boards online to see more images and to find out what was going on in planetary exploration.   What I found was quite exciting.   Voyager 2 was approaching Neptune, Magellan was getting ready to head to Venus, Phobos-2 was about to swing into orbit around Mars, and Galileo was about to head to Jupiter.

Phobos-2 would send back some incredible images but then fail.   Next up was Voyager at Neptune.  I would ride my bike at least once a week to all the local libraries to see if a new image was released in a magazine or newspaper.  I would search BBS boards for any new information.   As I read predictions for the Neptune encounter, its large, quirky moon Triton captivated me.   Was it active?  Would we see through its atmosphere? 

As the encounter approached, I would buy a newspaper every day in case there was an update.   A few days before the August 25 encounter, there was an image of Triton published.  It was taken on August 21, and was blocky and fuzzy.   Still, it was the first image of I had ever seen that showed actual surface features on Triton.

I clipped that image and probably still have it somewhere, although I'm not sure where.   I haven't seen it published anywhere else.  I decided to dig up the data set and produce a view of Triton as seen by Voyager that day.   It was this encounter, along with the images from the Phobos-2 images, that crystalized my interest in both planetary science and in image processing, transforming it from a passing fancy of childhood to a lifelong passion.

Processed Image Copyright Ted Stryk, Raw Data Courtesy NASA/JPL