With the temperatures finally beginning to fall (mid 70s overnight), I once again begin my observing season. Last week before the full moon I was able to pull the scope out in manual mode and snap this portrait. The upper and lower halves of the image were snapped 10 seconds apart, + and – 5 seconds of the stated time in the annotation.
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Although I have been reading “astro-blogs” throughout the year, it will be nice to once again be a contributing member of the “sphere.” See you again soon!
“The world changed today. What I say or do is very minor compared to the significance of what happened to our country today when it was attacked.” So said Expedition 3 Commander Frank L. Culbertson, upon learning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.
This image is one of a series taken that day of metropolitan New York City by the International Space Station’s Expedition 3 crew that shows the smoke plume rising from the Manhattan.
Upon further reflection, Commander Culbertson said, “It’s horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are.”
According to this Opportunity rover update posted yesterday, the vehicle has once again experienced a “cleaning event” with regards to it’s solar panels/power system. Also notice that the rover activities for Sol 891 include a panoramic camera mosaic (that answers that question). The rover is currently parked about 25 meters from Beagle Crater.
I was browsing the latest posted raw images from the Mars rover Opportunity and I couldn’t help but notice a sequence of Panoramic Camera images overlapped at the edges. I stitched together 5 of of these images (Left Panoramic Camera : Filter 2 (753nm near-infrared) : Non-linearized : Full frame EDR acquired on Sol 891) to create the panorama below.
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Raw image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
If you’ve read any of the recent posts here you’ll know I’m a huge fan of the “gee whiz” factor when it comes to astronomical/space related images, so for kicks and giggles I created a colorized version as well. This is in NO WAY an accurate representation of true color. It is simply my “gee whiz” approximation.
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Raw image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
I’d love to tell you exactly where the rover is and the direction these images represent but the “Where Are the Rovers Now?” page is about 13 Sols (Martian days) behind the current position. I believe Opportunity is somewhere near Beagle Crater on it’s way to Victoria Crater. Perhaps in a future update I will be able to add the geographic details regarding these images. Here was the location as of Sol 878.
