Kano,

Dang your fast!
Was just about to link your thread.

I have to say, I learned a lot there..thanks

Being one of those who works with these images to a degree, I can surely vouch for their authenticity and limited editing. Any claims otherwise is just BS and speculation on behalf of those who are either mis-informed or just ignorant of the facts. Most any edits are to enhance/improve the image quality and since the 'public' format is utilizing JPEG (lossy) compression, some minor enhancement may be needed to 'sharpen' them slightly or attempt a more pleasing color balance.

As the other thread points out, these 'color' images are approximations but due to the fact that images are taken at different exposure levels for each range of 'color' (maybe to bring out specific detail at that spectrum), the 'color' that results may be 'false' to 'real-life' as if seen with the naked eye. That is one of the reasons the sperules seen strewn across the landscape are called "blueberries" even though they are not really blue. This can be very useful in identifying general composition of different objects in the image-frame.

Many want to believe the martian sky is red but in fact, it is actually blue but with a red hue showing due to atmospheric 'haze' due to dust aloft as you view towards the horizon (this is true here on Earth as well). Since most all images normally taken are towards the surface or horizon, many never see this color at all. Some images released show a 'blue' sky but in most cases, it is a 'false' balance due to offset color-balance of the filter-set used to create the image.

I hope this explains it somewhat.

-Pandelirium
Moderator/OPS - #maestro #cassini chat - irc.freenode.net

Yeah, I gotta figure out how Kano and Banshee are so quick on the draw. Do you guys have an ATS database sitting right there ready for these instances?

Good work, Kano.

Cheers Kano for the great Mars colour imaging articles!

I was wondering, do you know if NASA have released any of the camera/filter calibration data, or details of the normalizing algorithms they used? From reading your articles I get the impression they hadn't released it back in January.

If we had this I might be able to go some way towards comping some more accurate colour images together. In particular if there are any graphs of the filter responses at different wavelengths, like the pigment response ones they've already given you, I think I can use this info to calculate the responses of three "virtual" r g and b filters and therefore come up with "true-er colour" images.

Also, do you happen to know of any images that were taken with all(7?) filters in turn?



[edit on 11-6-2004 by muppet]

I especially like the conclusion...about the coloring "changes" having to do with the dome cratar...no evidence...just pure conjecture...gotta love it!...How random!

One point though. Laney's color edits are useful in seeing the martian landscape in more detail. When everything is reddish it is very hard to see any details.

Lukefj

I have to admit, Kano you make one informative report. That was more information then I ever needed lol.