Cassini's pics

Can someone explain to me why the Cassini spacecraft's pictures of Saturn
are not as great as those of the earlier missions' from the 70's-80's? I was
expecting something spectacular.Instead I've only seen good black and whote
ones. Cheers!

Mike L wrote:

Can someone explain to me why the Cassini spacecraft's pictures of Saturn
are not as great as those of the earlier missions' from the 70's-80's? I was
expecting something spectacular.Instead I've only seen good black and whote
ones. Cheers!


Actually the pictures released are very exceptional in my view.

"Mike L" wrote in message
.. .
Can someone explain to me why the Cassini spacecraft's pictures of Saturn
are not as great as those of the earlier missions' from the 70's-80's? I
was
expecting something spectacular.Instead I've only seen good black and
whote
ones. Cheers!

I have to be honest, I have been thinking the same thing.
Although I know that there is new information and new science being done,
and it's a spectacular feat that we can get such a probe there intact and
functioning, but it would be additionally inspiring to us unwashed masses to
see purty, -sharp- color images.
And I understand that there are reasons that most all photos have to be, er,
appear BW.

-S

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 01:05:03 GMT, Mike L wrote:

Can someone explain to me why the Cassini spacecraft's pictures of Saturn
are not as great as those of the earlier missions' from the 70's-80's? I was
expecting something spectacular.Instead I've only seen good black and whote
ones. Cheers!

I suppose this issue has been tossed around often lately, especially
concerning the Mars rovers. It's important to realize that all digital
cameras actually record only black/white images. Natural color images are
created by combining 3 b/w images taken through red,green and blue filters.
Nevertheless, the spacecraft still has to take 3 different black/white
images and transmit them back to Earth. Only then are those images
assembled into a color one.
The reason you're seeing only b/w images is because the imaging team
decided to release them that way. Cassini is by all means capable of
producing stunning color pictures, even better and higher resolution than
the during Voyager era. One more thing - many of the Cassini b/w images of
Saturn released so far aren't even in the visible spectrum (they are in the
infrared and ultraviolet), so they don't bear any "color" a human eye would
see...

Also, about the images of Saturn's moons. They are low resolution (except
Titan) because they were taken from a large distance, when Cassini was
already speeding away on its first orbit. The mission team probably chose
to concentrate on the critical Saturn Orbit Insertion and left that kind of
science for some later time. I hope we'll get much better images in
October, following the Titan flyby...


--
The butler did it.

Ugo wrote:

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 01:05:03 GMT, Mike L wrote:

Can someone explain to me why the Cassini spacecraft's pictures of Saturn
are not as great as those of the earlier missions' from the 70's-80's? I
was expecting something spectacular.Instead I've only seen good black and
whote ones. Cheers!

I suppose this issue has been tossed around often lately, especially
concerning the Mars rovers. It's important to realize that all digital
cameras actually record only black/white images. Natural color images are
created by combining 3 b/w images taken through red,green and blue
filters.

so, their digital camera takes 3 images and combines them?
To Nasa(not the poster who simply informed us and to
whom we/I say "thanks for the info"):
for crying out loud, send up a Nikon 990 and get some color pics!
Why is it NASA can spend billions on things and always ends up using
such bone backward technology? I suppose they sent Cassini up there
with a 8088 running the ship. I know about the "reliability" arg but
at least they should come a little closer to modern day technology.
I would really like to see a true color picture of what Cassini is
seeing, for all my tax dollars is that too much to ask?
Eric

Nevertheless, the spacecraft still has to take 3 different
black/white images and transmit them back to Earth. Only then are those
images assembled into a color one.
The reason you're seeing only b/w images is because the imaging team
decided to release them that way. Cassini is by all means capable of
producing stunning color pictures, even better and higher resolution than
the during Voyager era. One more thing - many of the Cassini b/w images of
Saturn released so far aren't even in the visible spectrum (they are in
the infrared and ultraviolet), so they don't bear any "color" a human eye
would see...

Also, about the images of Saturn's moons. They are low resolution (except
Titan) because they were taken from a large distance, when Cassini was
already speeding away on its first orbit. The mission team probably chose
to concentrate on the critical Saturn Orbit Insertion and left that kind
of science for some later time. I hope we'll get much better images in
October, following the Titan flyby...

"Eric" wrote in message
news:CqiSc.128388$eM2.80184@attbi_s51...
Ugo wrote:
On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 01:05:03 GMT, Mike L wrote:

Can someone explain to me why the Cassini spacecraft's pictures of
Saturn
are not as great as those of the earlier missions' from the
70's-80's? I
was expecting something spectacular.Instead I've only seen good
black and
whote ones. Cheers!

I suppose this issue has been tossed around often lately, especially
concerning the Mars rovers. It's important to realize that all
digital
cameras actually record only black/white images. Natural color
images are
created by combining 3 b/w images taken through red,green and blue
filters.

so, their digital camera takes 3 images and combines them?
To Nasa(not the poster who simply informed us and to
whom we/I say "thanks for the info"):
for crying out loud, send up a Nikon 990 and get some color pics!
Why is it NASA can spend billions on things and always ends up using
such bone backward technology? I suppose they sent Cassini up there
with a 8088 running the ship. I know about the "reliability" arg but
at least they should come a little closer to modern day technology.
I would really like to see a true color picture of what Cassini is
seeing, for all my tax dollars is that too much to ask?
Eric

You seem to be thinking that Cassini was launched last week. It was
launched in 1997. And it had to be totally engineered years in advance
of that, and required technology that was "bulletproof" at the time, not
the latest thing off the shelf. Why don't you tell us what kind of
digital camera you owned in 1995?

In message CqiSc.128388$eM2.80184@attbi_s51, Eric
writes

so, their digital camera takes 3 images and combines them?
To Nasa(not the poster who simply informed us and to
whom we/I say "thanks for the info"):
for crying out loud, send up a Nikon 990 and get some color pics!
Why is it NASA can spend billions on things and always ends up using
such bone backward technology? I suppose they sent Cassini up there
with a 8088 running the ship. I know about the "reliability" arg but
at least they should come a little closer to modern day technology.
I would really like to see a true color picture of what Cassini is
seeing, for all my tax dollars is that too much to ask?
Eric

Your tax dollars apparently aren't going into your education :-)
Cassini is going to take close-up pictures of the moons later in the
orbital tour. Meanwhile, it is _already_ taking true colour and
scientifically more interesting false colour images, by the normal
technique of taking multiple exposures through different filters and
combining them on Earth.
More to the point, it was designed over a decade ago, using equipment
available at the time and proven to work in the arduous conditions and
long mission times involved.
--
What have they got to hide? Release the full Beagle 2 report.
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

Eric wrote:

Ugo wrote:

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 01:05:03 GMT, Mike L wrote:

Can someone explain to me why the Cassini spacecraft's pictures of Saturn
are not as great as those of the earlier missions' from the 70's-80's? I
was expecting something spectacular.Instead I've only seen good black and
whote ones. Cheers!

I suppose this issue has been tossed around often lately, especially
concerning the Mars rovers. It's important to realize that all digital
cameras actually record only black/white images. Natural color images are
created by combining 3 b/w images taken through red,green and blue
filters.

so, their digital camera takes 3 images and combines them?
To Nasa(not the poster who simply informed us and to
whom we/I say "thanks for the info"):
for crying out loud, send up a Nikon 990

You are aware that launching a Nikon 990 would take at least another 10 years
for the camera to reach Saturn. Are you?

--
Karl Heinz Buchegger

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 05:48:18 GMT, Eric wrote:

Ugo wrote:
It's important to realize that all digital
cameras actually record only black/white images. Natural color images are
created by combining 3 b/w images taken through red,green and blue
filters.

so, their digital camera takes 3 images and combines them?

If you read my post more carefully, you would understand that the camera
does no combining whatsoever. All it does is set up a filter (actually,
it's 2 filters in case of Cassini) and records the image on the CCD chip.
This is your raw, basic image that gets transmitted back to Earth. You too
can browse through those raw, unprocessed images at Cassini-Huygens main
site.

To Nasa(not the poster who simply informed us and to
whom we/I say "thanks for the info"):
for crying out loud, send up a Nikon 990 and get some color pics!

As others have already pointed out, there were no digital cameras back then
similar to what you have now. Cassini development started probably around
1995 and that's a long time ago when it comes to digital technology.
Also, your ordinary digital camera would be useless scientifically. This
way, by using filter wheels scientists can get both true color images and
much more valuable other types of images, such as ones of Titan's surface,
Saturn's clouds and mineralogy of the icy moons, to name a few.

Why is it NASA can spend billions on things and always ends up using
such bone backward technology? I suppose they sent Cassini up there
with a 8088 running the ship. I know about the "reliability" arg but
at least they should come a little closer to modern day technology.

No, they certainly didn't sent it up with a 8088 chip. The spacecraft is
actually quite a capable piece of work, with numerous specialized
integrated circuits. I strongly suggest visiting Cassini-Huygens main site
at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and reading about the spacecraft itself.
IIRC, there is some very nice information about everything you'd like to
know about it.

I would really like to see a true color picture of what Cassini is
seeing, for all my tax dollars is that too much to ask?

Again, I suggest paying a visit to the main site and browsing through the
multimedia gallery. I'm *pretty* sure I saw a couple of true color images
there...

--
The butler did it.

Thanks, Ugo, for the link to the Cassini mission. I should have done some
research before asking why there were no pretty pictures from cassini. I
guess I just remember being inundated almost immediately by those awesome
Jupiter and Saturn shots from those earlier missions.

"Ugo" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 05:48:18 GMT, Eric wrote:

Ugo wrote:
It's important to realize that all digital
cameras actually record only black/white images. Natural color images
are
created by combining 3 b/w images taken through red,green and blue
filters.

so, their digital camera takes 3 images and combines them?

If you read my post more carefully, you would understand that the camera
does no combining whatsoever. All it does is set up a filter (actually,
it's 2 filters in case of Cassini) and records the image on the CCD chip.
This is your raw, basic image that gets transmitted back to Earth. You too
can browse through those raw, unprocessed images at Cassini-Huygens main
site.

To Nasa(not the poster who simply informed us and to
whom we/I say "thanks for the info"):
for crying out loud, send up a Nikon 990 and get some color pics!

As others have already pointed out, there were no digital cameras back
then
similar to what you have now. Cassini development started probably around
1995 and that's a long time ago when it comes to digital technology.
Also, your ordinary digital camera would be useless scientifically. This
way, by using filter wheels scientists can get both true color images and
much more valuable other types of images, such as ones of Titan's surface,
Saturn's clouds and mineralogy of the icy moons, to name a few.

Why is it NASA can spend billions on things and always ends up using
such bone backward technology? I suppose they sent Cassini up there
with a 8088 running the ship. I know about the "reliability" arg but
at least they should come a little closer to modern day technology.

No, they certainly didn't sent it up with a 8088 chip. The spacecraft is
actually quite a capable piece of work, with numerous specialized
integrated circuits. I strongly suggest visiting Cassini-Huygens main site
at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and reading about the spacecraft itself.
IIRC, there is some very nice information about everything you'd like to
know about it.

I would really like to see a true color picture of what Cassini is
seeing, for all my tax dollars is that too much to ask?

Again, I suggest paying a visit to the main site and browsing through the
multimedia gallery. I'm *pretty* sure I saw a couple of true color images
there...

--
The butler did it.