Here are some high resolution mosaics and panoramas from the Curiosity rover on Mars

The best way I thought it could all be done is to upload the huge images to the GigaPan site - that's my thing. You can fullscreen, pan around, and zoom in and out very easily.

The one I will post first is a combination of Sols 136, 137, 138, and 141. It's what I call a "Double GigaPan" because I included both MastCams.

So, enjoy! I even added compass points and I worked very hard on it.

gigapan.com...

It's of YellowKnife Bay. Sol 137 from the MastCam 34mm. is on the bottom. Sols 136, 137, 138, and 141 taken with the MastCam 100mm. are combined to make the top mosaic.

Here's a very small image of it - scaled down for ATS:

I have also started a FaceBook page that has up to date images (like animated GIFS, more mosaics and panoramas, and raw images). It's really coming along nice. If you would like to join, here it is:

www.facebook.com...

Enjoy Mars! And the GigaPans!

reply to post by impaired


These are really great images, I'm going right back to play with them some more. Thanks for loading them (I've already found five flowers, a couple of skeletons, and a partridge in what seems to be an ancient pear tree).

Here's "Shaler" from Sol 120.

MastCam 100 (camera with telephoto lens):

gigapan.com...

MastCam 34 (more of a wide-angle camera):

gigapan.com...

It's already early in the thread and this is a must subscribe/bookmark. This one I'll be sharing with friends.

Originally posted by Aleister
reply to post by impaired

 

These are really great images, I'm going right back to play with them some more. Thanks for loading them (I've already found five flowers, a couple of skeletons, and a partridge in what seems to be an ancient pear tree).

edit on 8-1-2013 by Aleister because: (no reason given)

Thanks. I, myself, am going to sit out for the pareidolia - but that doesn't mean I don't see or think I see "interesting things" in some of these images. Like I said, I'm going to stay out of that. You guys can do whatever.

These are really awesome, thanks Impaired!

What's interesting to remember is that all or most of the reddish color is "dust". There was a news item or thread yesterday (it's hard to keep track of where things came from) that Curiosity has just used it's dust-brush for the first time and dusted off a round area. When the dust was cleared the rock was a very brilliant whitish-grey, much different than the look we've become famiiar with. So underneath all the pale red is a layer of color and brilliant rock formations that would be very nice to view and explore. If only there were a way to dust the entire scene at once. Thanks again!

Originally posted by constant_thought
These are really awesome, thanks Impaired!

It's my pleasure. The people deserve to see these images. NASA's FB site just posted a month old panorama that was white-balanced (altered color). And like I said, it was a month old and only posted a few days ago.

That's what inspired me to do this - creating the FB page and then posting again here.

But a month behind? Come on. Raw images are pouring out so fast. Maybe they just don't have the time - Who knows.

Originally posted by Aleister
What is interesting to remember is that all or most of the reddish color is dust. There was a news item or thread yesterday (it's hard to keep track of where things came from) that Curiosity has used it's dust-brush for the first time and dusted a round area. When the dust was cleared the rock was a very brilliant whitish-grey, much different than the dust covered look we have become famiiar with. So underneath all of this is a layer of color and brilliant rock formations. If only there were a way to dust the entire scene at once. Thanks again!

You're very welcome.

Yup. I made an animated GIF of that one. I aligned the two images, cropped them, and made them animate. Pretty cool:

makeagif.com...

And here's another animated GIF of the brush just revolving. Two frames from the MastCam. The first animated GIF posted above is from the MAHLI camera.

Here are the brushes themselves:

makeagif.com...

Here is Sol 106 - taken with the MastCam 34mm.

This is the panorama NASA released a few days ago on their page while mine was sitting around on the GigaPan site:

gigapan.com...

Originally posted by impaired
Here is Sol 106 - taken with the MastCam 34mm.

This is the panorama NASA released a few days ago on their page while mine was sitting around on the GigaPan site:

gigapan.com...

Another reason to thank you. I should just have a card made up and hold it up. This is a great thread, and, as of now anyway, we are a lucky few who are following it. I looked at your list of other pages, and the one about driving a mars rover looks interesting. You obviously put a ton of work into these threads, and to share your interests and enthusiasms seems to be what this site is all about.

Originally posted by Aleister

Originally posted by impaired
Here is Sol 106 - taken with the MastCam 34mm.

This is the panorama NASA released a few days ago on their page while mine was sitting around on the GigaPan site:

gigapan.com...

Another reason to thank you. I should just have a card made up and hold it up. This is a great thread, and, as of now anyway, we are a lucky few who are following it. I looked at your list of other pages, and the one about driving a mars rover looks interesting. You obviously put a ton of work into these threads, and to share your interests and enthusiasms seems to be what this site is all about.

Thanks, yeah. That is my hope - to share images of this planet in a timely fashion. Man, it irks me that NASA can send a rover like this to Mars and land it the way they did, but not release stuff as often as they could.

Perhaps they're busy, but I thought one of the points of this mission WAS to raise Mars awareness.

And yeah, it is a lot of hard and tedious work - especially the GigaPan of Yellowknife Bay. I don't even get to see it all until I GigaPan it (I check for stitching errors and scope it out just to see if it's ok). But once I get to the Gigapan after I upload it, I'm right there with you folks panning and zooming around.

So it's still very exciting on my part and that's why I love to do it.

Here's a re-projected version of the Yellowknife Bay panorama from Sol 137 - MastCam 34:

gigapan.com...

Now I have it facing East - Directly into the bay. You can see how far the walls go off into the distance.

Great stuff! What software you use to stitch the images? I use Microsoft ICE, but it struggles with some of the images. Panorama from Sol 106 is giving me most trouble.

Check out my much more humble page at www.facebook.com...

www.photosynth.net... is a cool site for panoramas too, it actually wraps the image around your field of view to keep the correct proportions. Example: photosynth.net...

In these images, what could be casting those shadows over the middle of the panoramas? or is it simply a matter of light received by the cameras making it look as if something large is in the sky (clouds?) casting these shadows?


I thought Mars had an iffy at best atmosphere, so clouds wouldn't be present...or does Mars have cloud coverage like we have on Earth?


I'd like to state that I am by all means have a minimal understanding of our Rusty colored friend.

Originally posted by wildespace
Great stuff! What software you use to stitch the images? I use Microsoft ICE, but it struggles with some of the images. Panorama from Sol 106 is giving me most trouble.

Check out my much more humble page at www.facebook.com...

www.photosynth.net... is a cool site for panoramas too, it actually wraps the image around your field of view to keep the correct proportions. Example: photosynth.net...

Ahaha - I thought I was at my page for a second - we made and chose the same background image!

I use PTGui. I love it. So much control over projections and control points, etc.

I also used to use 360citiesnet for the 360's, but I'm still not too confident with them yet. Either they come out good or bad.

But yeah - nice site! Keep spreading Mars!

Originally posted by MmmPie
In these images, what could be casting those shadows over the middle of the panoramas? or is it simply a matter of light received by the cameras making it look as if something large is in the sky (clouds?) casting these shadows?

EXACLTY. I didn't want to mess with the darker images, but in future panoramas I will try to even it all out. I know what I have to do, but it's a real pain unless I create an algorithm, which I just might...

reply to post by impaired


Bump a de bump bump. That this thread only has five stars and still sits on one page makes me rage against the machine (although the machine rages back, and then we arm-wrestle). The work the OP put into this thead, the hours of formatting the pics of Mars, is way over my head and so the least I can do is point out this job well-done and let a few other people in on the fun.

Originally posted by MmmPie
In these images, what could be casting those shadows over the middle of the panoramas? or is it simply a matter of light received by the cameras making it look as if something large is in the sky (clouds?) casting these shadows?


I thought Mars had an iffy at best atmosphere, so clouds wouldn't be present...or does Mars have cloud coverage like we have on Earth?


I'd like to state that I am by all means have a minimal understanding of our Rusty colored friend.

Just to make sure, you don't mean the shadow from the rover itself? If not, then the cause is most likely due to the shorter exposure used by the camera to compensate for the bright light. This makes some of the images darker than the others, and in a stitched panorama this creates darker regions.

Or perhaps you mean the dark sand dunes at the foot of the Mt Sharp.

There are thin clouds on Mars, they consist mostly of frozen CO2 crystals.