MESSENGER has returned quite a few high quality Mercury photographs. Check these out; the surface details are of the side of Mercury the Mariner 10 missions did not photograph!
The cratered surface of Mercury has not been visited in about 30 years. Only 45% of the surface of Mercury has been imaged by the Mariner 10. MESSENGER has a full suite of scientific instruments and will be able to tell us many things about the geological history, and hopefully about the highly reflective material (possibly water-ice in the perpetual shadows) of the north and south poles, of Mercury as well as image the remaining portion of the planet unseen by the previous Mariner mission.
The official MESSENGER website has a slew of great, entertaining, and interactive information pertaining to Mercury. Check it out for some fast facts, great animations, and even an interactive quiz or two to test your Mercurian knowledge.
January 18, 2008
Mercury Messenger Flyby 1 Summary
January 14, 2008
MESSENGER Now At Closest Point To Mercury
MESSENGER is now at its closest point (about 124 mi) from the surface of Mercury. Now... we wait for the pics!
January 13, 2008
Today's Mercury Photograph
January 11, 2008
MESSENGER Update: New Photograph Released!
Posted by Rick at 8:23 PM |
Great New Blog & Awesome Astrophotos
Posted by Rick at 7:25 PM |
Identify Never-Before-Seen Galaxies
Trust me it's as easy as it sounds. Turn in your name and you'll even be credited! Try to determine spiral, elliptical, and merging galaxies from fuzzy original photos. The computer program can pick out the galaxies, but the human eye is the only thing that can classify them.
Easy as it sounds, labelling can be tricky. They are awfully fuzzy, and sometimes you have to identify photographs from a bad angle.
Got some down time? Let's classify some galaxies!
P.S. The GalaxyZoo blog will be on the blogroll from now on too! Check it out!
January 9, 2008
MESSENGER Team Receives First Optical Navigation Images
January 5, 2008
Processed Mars Pic
Here's my older pic of Mars...
And my newer pic. This one is 7 exposures stacked through Registax, and with adjusted Curves through Photoshop (with a custom diffraction spike brush as well).
Stay tuned in for how I made the improvements!
Posted by Rick at 11:57 AM |
January 4, 2008
Photoshop Tutorial: Diffraction Spikes #1
Posted by Rick at 9:54 AM |
Labels: astrophotography, photoshop
January 1, 2008
Featured Photographer: The Star Doctor
Posted by Rick at 11:09 AM |