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Posts Tagged ‘captured’

NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently captured a stunning image of Jupiter

24 Feb

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

With all the recent excitement surrounding NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars and new images, we’ve got space on the brain. This month, NASA published a beautiful image of the gas giant Jupiter that its Juno spacecraft captured in late 2020.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since July 5, 2016. The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 5, 2011. The latest image, seen below, was captured on December 30, 2020, during Juno’s 31st close flyby of Jupiter.

‘Citizen scientist Tanya Oleksuik created this color-enhanced image using data from the JunoCam camera…At the time, the spacecraft was about 31,000 mi (about 50,000 km) from the planet’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 50° South.’ Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Click to enlarge.

This excellent shot shows Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere and includes several of Jupiter’s southern jet streams. Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot is visible on the horizon as well. With the aid of imagery and the numerous scientific instruments onboard Juno, scientists discovered that the planet’s atmospheric jet streams extend further than previously thought. Recent evidence shows that the jet streams and belts penetrate up to 1,800 mi (3,000 km) down into the planet.

JunoCam (JCM) is a visible-light camera/telescope. Malin Space Science Systems built the camera. It has a field of view of 58° and includes four filters, three of which are used for visible light photography. The camera is fixed to Juno, so it gets one chance for observation when Juno orbits Jupiter. JCM uses a Kodak image sensor, the Kodak KAI-2020, and records 1,600 x 1,200 pixel images, which is fewer than 2MP. Due to the incredible distance of Juno from Earth, which is more than 550 million miles, only limited data can be transmitted from Juno to Earth during each 11-day orbital cycle.

Image credit: NASA. Click to enlarge.

Citizens are encouraged to download and process JunoCam images. Raw images are available to view and download here. If you’d like to learn more about NASA Citizen Science projects, visit the dedicated Citizen Science website.

Artist concept of Juno. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Juno mission’s primary objective is to improve our understanding of Jupiter’s origin and evolution. Juno and its onboard instruments are used to determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, analyze the planet’s atmosphere, map magnetic and gravity fields, explore the planet’s magnetosphere, and more. As of now, the Juno mission is due to end in September 2025, so there’ll be plenty of more images to come in the next few years. You can learn more about Juno here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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A photo history quiz tests the impact of color on guessing when images were captured

29 Oct

Does how we place an image in history depend upon its presentation? A new quiz (and experiment) by Matt Daniels and Jan Diehm aims to test this question. The quiz, published on The Pudding, shows users a series of five images captured in the United States during the last century and asks you to estimate the year the photo was taken.

We recommend taking the quiz before reading the rest of this article to preserve the integrity of the data results.

The quiz shows some images in color, and others in black and white. In some cases, the black and white image has been digitally altered from its original color presentation. Daniels and Diehm want to know if users estimate the age of the same image in black and white as being older than that image in color.

The pair were inspired to construct the experiment after reading this tweet from Hannah Beachler, Academy Award Winning production designer. In her tweet, Beachler shared a series of color photos from the Civil Rights movement and posited that showing this important period in American History as digitally altered black and white images leads people to believe it took place longer ago than it did, which may very well impact the general societal conception of the movement, particularly among a younger generation.

Daniels and Diehm write, ‘How we view history is largely defined by the aesthetics we associate with each period. When you were dating the photos, you probably looked for context clues — what people were wearing, if there were any familiar buildings, and if you recognized any faces. You were probably also looking at color…we wanted to test how color does or does not warp our perception of time.’

On the results page, you see the five photos you were shown again, this time with the color original and black and white versions. You then see how your guess compares against the average guesses for both the color and black and white versions. For example, one of the images I was shown in color was captured in 1987. In this case, users shown the same photo in black and white guessed that it is seven years older than it is. This same gap was present in another photo I was shown in color.

You can also view an additional series of images others saw when they took the quiz. In some cases, users guessed that the black and white versions were upwards of 14 years older than the same image in color. In the case of every image, participants guessed that the black and white version was older.

The photo, typically visible to the left in color (top) and black and white (bottom) has been removed. Here we can see that the average guess when presented the black and white version of the image is seven years older than the same image in color. While the difference varies, this pattern is consistent.

Color photography has been around for a long time, since the 19th century in fact, but its mainstream adoption lagged far behind for decades. While The Milwaukee Journal first printed a color image in 1891, many newspapers were very slow to follow suit. Even in 1993, when The New York Times wrote ‘newspapers’ adoption of color nearly complete,’ there were still newspapers in North America printing exclusively in black and white.

Given the results of the quiz, it appears that the presentation of an image does impact how users place the photograph in historical context. Further study, repeated testing and peer review are needed to produce definitive conclusions, but Daniels and Diehm intend to build analysis in the future.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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NASA shares photos captured by its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft during its 6-second stay on an asteroid

23 Oct

NASA has released pictures taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that show the moment it touched down on the Bennu asteroid 200 million miles from Earth. The craft left Cape Canaveral a little over four years ago with the aim of intersecting the asteroid, and landed on the surface within three feet of the intended target on 20th October.

As the craft approached the asteroid its SamCam camera captured images at a rate of one every 1.25 seconds, recording the successful touch-down and the lift-off just six seconds later. While in contact with the surface OSIRIS-Rex used its Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm to collect samples of materials which it will bring back to Earth for analysis in March next year. The arm blasts the surface with pure nitrogen to force materials into the collecting chamber with the target of bringing back 60g of samples.

The aim of the mission and the sample collection is to help scientists learn more about the creation of the solar system and to see if organic molecules like those that make-up life on Earth can be detected. NASA says the value of this mission will be that it will be able to study materials that haven’t been subjected to the harsh process of entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

‘The O in OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins – understanding the origins of the solar system, which includes the origin of life on Earth. Bennu, the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission, will help us answer important astrobiology questions such as the role asteroids may have played in delivering life-forming compounds to Earth. It is a primitive carbonaceous asteroid that holds the record of our solar system’s earliest history.’

SamCam is only one of three cameras attached to the craft, the others being PolyCam which has an 8in telescope and was responsible for spotting the asteroid, and MapCam which checks the area on which the craft is to land.

The 82-image timelapse of the touch-and-go event shown here was taken over a five minute period, beginning when the craft was 82 feet from the surface and ending when it had backed away to 43 feet. It’s very cool but I have to say, if I’d driven all that way I would have shot it in color!

Here’s a video about how the craft approached the asteroid and mapped out the landing site.

For more information on the OSIRIS-REx mission visit the NASA website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: The history of cameras in space and how iconic space photos were captured

10 Oct

Astronauts have been taking cameras into space Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov orbited the Earth aboard the Vostok 2 in 1961. Since then, astronauts have used cameras to capture some of the most iconic photos of space exploration and created important memories for countless people back on terra firma.

As Scott Manley points out in his new video, How Astronauts Captured Iconic Space Photos – A History of Cameras in Space, although cameras are often modified for space flight, not every camera has been special. In fact, John Glenn bought a standard Ansco Autoset camera on his own, likely to avoid delays if he had gone through the standard government acquisitions process. NASA engineers modified the camera to make it easier to use while in space, including the addition of a pistol grip and an additional viewfinder that could be used with the suit helmet closed. You can learn more about Glenn’s Ansco Autoset in this article from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. A second camera on board Glenn’s first orbital flight was a special Leica camera which had been modified to capture wide-spectrum images of stars.

Walter Schirra, pictured above second from the left, took a Hasselblad 500C camera aboard the Mercury Sigma-7 spacecraft. Schirra was a photography enthusiast himself and had asked professional photographers who had been following the space program for advice. On their advice, Schirra purchased the medium format Hasselblad and after it was modified for improved usability and performance, he used it to capture images during six orbits of Earth. The resulting images were very detailed and as Manley says in the video below, established a new standard for images captured in space.

Schirra’s Hasselblad camera was later used in the final Mercury mission by Gordon Cooper and was eventually sold at auction for $ 275,000 USD. If you would like to own a working replica of this same Hasselblad, Cole Rise makes replicas of space cameras, including the Hasselblad 500C. You can learn more about Rise’s cameras at Space Camera Co.

Thanks in large part to Schirra’s photography in space, Hasselblad cameras became important cargo aboard subsequent space exploration missions as part of the Gemini and Apollo missions. Hasselblad cameras were used outside of spacecraft as well, capturing many iconic images. One of these iconic images was of Edward White during his spacewalk in 1965. By this point, Hasselblad had begun working directly with NASA to develop cameras for space and had outfitted NASA with a custom-built Hasselblad 500EL data camera, complete with a silver finish for thermal control, special low-distortion lens and Reseau plate.

This custom-build Hasselblad data camera was used on Apollo 8, 9, 10 and 11 missions. Image credit: Hasselblad

Hasselblad has an informative website dedicated to its history in space, it is well worth checking out.

Near the end of the Apollo program, Nikon began working work NASA to outfit astronauts with customized 35mm SLR cameras. Nikon cameras are still used in space to this day. Some of the modifications made to make Nikon cameras suitable for space include different soldering standards, vacuum-safe lubricants and a more robust metal construction. You can learn more about Nikon’s history, including the use of its cameras in space, by clicking here. Manley also references Timm Chapman, a photographer who owns many Nikon space cameras. Chapman has written extensively about Nikon’s space cameras, including fascinating details on how they were modified.

Screenshot from Nikon’s dedicated history website. Click to enlarge.

To learn more about a history of cameras in space, including the beginning of the digital age in space, watch Scott Manley’s full video above. To see additional videos from Manley, head to his YouTube channel.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Go on a 4K video tour of Mars with images captured by NASA’s Mars rovers

23 Jul

ElderFox Documentaries has compiled a 4K UHD video tour of Mars using ultra-high resolution images and photo mosaics captured by NASA’s Mars rovers. It’s a stunning look at the Martian landscape and a great way to view another world nearly 34 million miles away.

The video is technically a slideshow, as there are massive technical constraints limiting NASA’s ability to record and transmit high-resolution video from Mars to earth. As NASA points out, it can take about 20 hours to transmit 250 megabits directly back to earth. There is an eight-minute window during each Martian day (sol) in which the rover can send the same 250 megabits of data to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passes overhead. As ElderFox Documentaries notes, at those transmission speeds and considering that ‘nothing really moves on Mars,’ it makes more sense to send images back home rather than video files.

In the video above, we see images captured by three different NASA Mars rovers: Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. In the bottom left corner of the video tour, ElderFox has noted the Mars rover used to capture the images and the location on Mars in which they were captured.

If you want to see more of Mars, we have a lot more to show you. In March, NASA shared the highest-resolution panoramic image of Mars ever captured by its Curiosity rover. You can see a video NASA published below. In July 2017, Curiosity captured images of clouds above the Martian landscape. Earlier that year, space enthusiast Jan Fröjdman turned NASA anaglyph images into a simulated flight video using 33,000 reference points and NASA’s own depth information. You see that incredible video here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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A decade of sun: NASA captured 425 million photos of the sun and made a time lapse

30 Jun

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been very busy capturing images of the sun over the last decade. From June 2, 2010 through June 1, 2020, the SDO captured 425 million images of the sun. Per NASA, the team amassed about 20 million gigabytes of images of the sun in the past decade and with that data, NASA compiled 10 years’ worth of images into the amazing timelapse video above.

Using three primary instruments, the SDO captures an image of the sun every 0.75 seconds. One of these instruments, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. In the timelapse video published by NASA, we see photos of the sun captured at the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 17.1 nanometers. This wavelength allows us to view the sun’s outermost layer, called the corona.

Generally, the hour-long timelapse video features a compiled image from each hour of every day for the past 10 years. Although, there are a few exceptions. There are dark frames caused by the Earth or moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the sun. There was also a week-long outage of the AIA instrument in 2016. Any off-center images of the sun are due to periodic instrument calibration.

As you can imagine, the SDO has witnessed many interesting events during its period of observation. In the video above, at 6:20, you can see a prominence eruption from the lower right area of the sun from June 7, 2011. At 12:24, you can see the transit of Venus across the face of the sun on June 5, 2012. This event won’t occur again until the year 2117. On July 19, 2012, a brilliant display of looping plasma showed a complex event in the sun’s magnetic field, this can be seen at 13:06. About six weeks later, on August 31, 2012, the ‘most iconic eruption of this solar cycle’ occurred, witnessed at 13:50 in the video.

Jumping ahead to 36:18, you can view Mercury as it transits across the face of the sun on May 9, 2016. It is more difficult to spot than Venus, but you can learn more about it here. Mercury appears again at 57:38, as it transited the sun again on November 11, 2019. This will Mercury’s last transit until 2032. A full list of interesting events you can witness in the video can be found in the description on YouTube.

‘An X8.2 class solar flare flashes in the edge of the Sun on Sept. 10, 2017. This image was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and shows a blend of light from the 171 and 304 angstrom wavelengths.’ Image and text credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

Scott Wiessinger (USRA) was the lead producer on the video above. Tom Bridgman (GST) was the lead data visualizer. Leading scientific writing was Mara Johnson-Groh (Wyle Information Systems). The music, ‘Solar Observer,’ was written and produced by Lars Leonhard.

If you’d like to learn more about NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, you can find a wealth of fascinating information by clicking here.

Earlier this year, NASA published a shorter video that covered 10 of the most important things scientists have learned during SDO’s first decade in space. You can check that out below.

Image credit: Images via NASA/GSFC/SDO

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: Ferrari sports cars, Formula 1 cars captured on-track with a Super 8 cameras from the 1960s

12 Mar

Nick Shirrell, a motorsport filmmaker known for using old school film cameras to capture auto races, recently received an invitation from Ferrari to travel to Italy and film a race using 50-year-old Super 8 cameras with 8mm film. The result is a 10-minute video featuring a retro production style and classic voiceover narration that recently went viral on the /r/Formula1 subreddit.

DPReview spoke with Shirrell to ask about his experience with Ferrari and the gear he used to capture the race, as well as the events that led up to this moment. The project wouldn’t have been possible without support from Reddit, according to Shirrell, who explained that his first Super 8 race video went viral on the /r/cars subreddit, resulting in articles from publications like Jalopnik and, eventually, a private message from Ferrari.

Following the initial video, Shirrell filmed an IndyCar video at Road America, which likewise was popular on Reddit and with automotive media. He explains:

‘Not long after the IndyCar video went viral, I got DM’d on my Instagram by Ferrari asking if I’d like to talk to them about doing some filming. Little did I know the phone call that would follow would be an invitation to Italy to make the great film released this week! Ferrari was amazing to work with and they made it clear they wanted no hand in the creative process or in the final content, they only wanted to enable me to create something amazing and give me the opportunity to do what I do with these films.’

Shirrell used a variety of gear to capture the race, including three Super8 cameras: a 1966 Canon 814, 1968 Canon 1218 and a 1971 Beaulieu 4008 ZM2 with Kodak Vision3 50D and 200T motion picture film stock. These models were joined by a RadioShack-brand Realistic 14-1029 handheld mini-cassette recorder featuring a Smith-Victor supercardiod condenser shotgun microphone.

Shirrell said his narrator Alan Baxter used a modern microphone to record the voiceover, which was later edited using software. As well, he relied on the natural lighting available at the filming locations. Shirrell explained:

‘For post-processing the voiceover audio, I use EQ and distortion filters within Adobe Premiere Pro to mimic the sound of an older microphone recording onto tape as accurately as I can. For ambient track sounds of V10s, Challenge cars, etc recorded onto mini-cassettes the old fashioned way I didn’t have to add any filtering.’

As for processing the film, he said:

‘I do develop my own 35mm and medium format still photos with C-41, E-6, and black and white chemicals, but for a professional project like for Ferrari I didn’t trust myself to not ruin the film on my first ever attempt at developing 8mm. 8mm is challenging to develop because it’s 50 feet long and very small and fiddly compared to a roll of 35mm or 120 film that is 4-6 feet in length.’

This isn’t the end for Shirrell, who has plans for other projects involving his retro equipment:

‘For what I want to shoot next, I’d love the opportunity to film Formula 1 if the opportunity presents itself, but I also have ideas for shooting drag racing, rally, and other motorsports.’

Shirrell’s work can be found on his YouTube account and on Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Qualcomm shows off the first 8K footage captured with its Snapdragon 865 chipset

05 Feb

One of the defining features of Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 865 chipset, which we covered back in December, is its ability to shoot 8K video. We’re yet to see a device make the most of the 865 Snapdragon, but Qualcomm has shared a teaser video showing the 8K resolution in all its glory.

The device Qualcomm used to capture the video is a prototype smartphone with a Sony Sony IMX586 image sensor inside. It was captured back in November 2019 at various locations around Arizona, including the Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and the Petroglyphs near Antelope Canyon. It’s suggested, of course, to view this in a compatible browser and on the highest-resolution screen you can find to make the most of the footage.

Below are a few BTS shots shared with DPReview:

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_5543099542″,”galleryId”:”5543099542″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

You can read more about the video capture and Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform on Qualcomm’s blog post.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Ricoh shares 360º photos, videos from space captured in partnership with JAXA

20 Oct

Editor’s note: The below video is best viewed in Chrome or Firefox browsers, as they support 360-degree video:

Ricoh has published photos and video captured with a specialized version of its Ricoh Theta 360-degree spherical camera developed in partnership with with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

‘The camera was installed to monitor the operation of the biaxial gimbal of the SOLISS (Small Optical Link for International Space Station),’ says Ricoh in its press release. ‘It was carried aboard the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV8) “KOUNOTORI-8”, the cargo transporter to the International Space Station (ISS), which was launched on September 25 , 2019.’

The specialized Ricoh Theta camera was modified so it could withstand the heat and radiation in space. The images and video from the camera were captured from the Exposed Facility of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), nicknamed ‘Kibo,’ and subsequently sent back to ground stations on Earth.

A flattened version of the above interactive image.

In addition to the images in this article, Ricoh has also posted the photos and videos on the JAXA Digital Archives and on its Theta Lab website, where the content can be viewed interactively in 360-degrees.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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NASA shares new portrait of Jupiter captured by Hubble Space Telescope

31 Aug

The aging Hubble Space Telescope has produced a new full portrait image of Jupiter, our Solar System’s stormy gas giant. NASA shared the image earlier this month, though it was captured by the space telescope on June 27. The portrait features Jupiter’s colorful bands, as well as its iconic Giant Red Spot, a massive storm that has been raging on the planet for hundreds of years.

According to NASA, the new image features ‘a more intense color palette’ related to the clouds visible in Jupiter’s atmosphere, exceeding that of past portraits. The space agency explains that this new image was captured in visible light using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

NASA describes the importance of the image in a post, pointing out various bands and colors that hint at changes in the gas giant’s atmosphere. The two cloud bands visible below and above the Great Red Spot, for example, are moving in opposite directions, NASA explains, each separated by winds moving up to 644km/h (400mph).

The portrait comes amid ongoing work with the James Webb Space Telescope, which will eventually replace Hubble, offering newer technology and improved camera capabilities, among other things. The new space telescope is scheduled to launch in 2021.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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