Some more pictures have come back from Oppy that are allowing image fans like myself to create different types of “product” – 3D anaglyphs, black and white and colour mosaics, and panoramas, etc. In this post I’d like to show you the difference between what I do – which is basically messing about in Photoshop Elements and PaintShop Pro, simply having fun with these pictures! – and what the Big Guys do, with their algorithms, special software and much higher levels of skill! 🙂
Here’s what I made out of the latest batch of raw images showing the Faraway Hills of Endeavour and Other Craters…
… and a colour(ish) version…
Which I was quite pleased with, given my level of expertise and the “kit” I have. Ah. But when I saw this breathtakingly beautiful image, produced by Damien Bouic (aka unmannedspaceflight.com’s ‘Ant103’) one of the acest ace Mars rover image makers there is, all I could do was sit back in my (broken) office chair and let out a silent “Wow…..” (click on the image below to see, and drool over, the full size version)
Isn’t that just beautiful? That has to be one of my favourite images of the whole MER mission so far. There really is nothing like a view of hills rising up on a distant horizon to inspire and excite us… whatever the planet.
Oppy is heading for the hills on the far left. If she survives long enough to reach them, she won’t get there for another year or so. But in a way that doesn’t matter. What matters, as my good friend Rui would say, is the journey itself, and every day now Oppy will get a little closer to those distant peaks, and every day our view of them will get a little better. We’ll start to see more details on them, more shape and shade. We’ll see the Sun shining above them, and maybe, at some point, Earth setting behind them, too. These hills ARE Oppy’s mission now. And it’s going to be an amazing adventure getting to them…
I hope you’ll follow Oppy on her journey with me, here, on this little blog of mine! 🙂
Note: want to see more of Damien’s lovely work? Here ya go…
The Road To Endeavour 
Stu says: “That has to be one of my favourite images of the whole MER mission so far.”
Huh! I bet you say that about every image from MER 😉
And you’d be right!!