APOD: Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph (2016 Nov 25)

APOD Robot · Post by **APOD Robot** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 5:06 am

Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo scene from Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon! The color anaglyph features a detailed 3D view of Apollo 17's Lunar Rover in the foreground -- behind it lies the Lunar Module and distant lunar hills. Because the world was going to be able to watch the Lunar Module's ascent stage liftoff via the rover's TV camera, this parking place was also known as the VIP Site. In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. The crew returned with 110 kilograms of rock and soil samples, more than from any of the other lunar landing sites. Cernan and Schmitt are still the last to walk (or drive) on the Moon.

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ta152h0 · Post by **ta152h0** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 6:20 am

wonder if it will start ?

Case · Post by **Case** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 10:20 am

APOD Robot wrote:... the last to walk (or drive) on the Moon.

Independent creatives can set their own prices and all, but Alan Bean’s paintings are a different price league, wow.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 12:08 pm

ta152h0 wrote:wonder if it will start ?

All it would need is a new set of charged batteries and away you go. The big problem is going to be finding where it is parked. They should have left an antenna ball on it so it could be located again more easily. But seriously, with new batteries, it would go again. And save the cost of transporting another vehicle to the moon. If it is a convenient location for continued exploration. (and no parking tickets)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 1:52 pm

Is there a X-eye stereo version anywhere ? ( I have not got red/blue glasses ! )
Surely the position is well known, the VIP site as said, or have those records been lost as well ?

Naw, not just a new battery, they always find something else that needs doing, new wiper blades, a tail light bulb, at least two new brake pipes etc&etc

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 1:58 pm

Guest wrote:
They should have left an antenna ball on it so it could be located again more easily.

You know those balls that they put on car antennas so you can find them in the parking lot? Those should be on every car!

De58te · Post by **De58te** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 2:29 pm

ta152h0 wrote:wonder if it will start ?

If the batteries stayed charged for 44 years, may be. Just remember that Apollo 17's LRV had to use up some extra juice to film the blastoff of the Lunar Lander and broadcast live to the Earth.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 2:35 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

De58te wrote:
ta152h0 wrote:
wonder if it will start ?
If the batteries stayed charged for 44 years, may be. Just remember that Apollo 17's LRV had to use up some extra juice to film the blastoff of the Lunar Lander and broadcast live to the Earth.

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 3:39 pm

Guest wrote:Is there a X-eye stereo version anywhere ? ( I have not got red/blue glasses ! )

Here you go. I hate anaglyphs, so the first thing I always do when interesting ones show up is convert them back to stereo pairs.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 5:31 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Chris Peterson wrote:
I hate anaglyphs

Now you've gone and hurt her feelings

Anna Cliff Jumping at Beaver Falls

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 6:25 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
Guest wrote:Is there a X-eye stereo version anywhere ? ( I have not got red/blue glasses ! )
Here you go. I hate anaglyphs, so the first thing I always do when interesting ones show up is convert them back to stereo pairs.

a17_crossed.jpg

I look at both sets of photos, but I don't see any tire tracks. The Mars rovers leave tracks easily discernible, so why none visible on the moon? Is the structure of the surface different in some way? I assume there is enough gravity to provide sufficient weight to leave impressions in the 'moon dust'. But I just don't see them.

geoffrey.landis · Post by **geoffrey.landis** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 7:05 pm

That's a peculiar anaglyph. Usually the red and green images are left and right of each other.

rstevenson · Post by **rstevenson** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 7:06 pm

Guest wrote:I look at both sets of photos, but I don't see any tire tracks. The Mars rovers leave tracks easily discernible, so why none visible on the moon? Is the structure of the surface different in some way? I assume there is enough gravity to provide sufficient weight to leave impressions in the 'moon dust'. But I just don't see them.

That is odd. I found many images of the rover online but a lot of them did not show any obvious wheel tracks. One of the images I found was of the rover during the Apollo 15 mission, which does clearly show wheel tracks near some footprints. For some reason the footprints are more pressed into the surface and therefore more obvious than the wheel tracks. So maybe the wheel tracks in most pictures just aren't sufficiently different from the overall rough surface to stand out. As well, most of the images I found, like today's APOD, show the rover from a nearly front-on view, putting any wheel tracks below and behind the rover, and often in shadow.

Here's that shot from Apollo 15, and a detail of it below, showing the tracks.

Rob

geoffrey.landis · Post by **geoffrey.landis** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 7:10 pm

Guest wrote: I look at both sets of photos, but I don't see any tire tracks. The Mars rovers leave tracks easily discernible, so why none visible on the moon? Is the structure of the surface different in some way? I assume there is enough gravity to provide sufficient weight to leave impressions in the 'moon dust'. But I just don't see them.

Mars rover tracks are relatively easy to see because the darker soil is covered with lighter colored windblown dust. On the moon, there isn't any windblown dust-- the soil on top is exactly the same color as the soil underneath so there isn't that contrast.

There is some contrast in roughness-- the packed-down soil is slightly less rough than the unpacked soil. You would be able to see the tracks better in lighting that brought this out-- the tracks look "shiny".

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 7:14 pm

Guest wrote:I look at both sets of photos, but I don't see any tire tracks. The Mars rovers leave tracks easily discernible, so why none visible on the moon? Is the structure of the surface different in some way? I assume there is enough gravity to provide sufficient weight to leave impressions in the 'moon dust'. But I just don't see them.

The lunar regolith is quiet shallow- you can see that the footprints are no deeper than a few millimeters. Depending on the weight of the rover and the size and shape of its wheels, it may produce even shallower tracks than the astronauts. Combine that with the fact that the Sun is nearly overhead, and there just isn't enough contrast to make the tracks show up (note that the entire landscape shows almost no features with the Sun in this position).

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 8:34 pm

You can see some tracks especially in the background if you jack the contrast way up. (click and view full size image)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 10:29 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
Guest wrote:Is there a X-eye stereo version anywhere ? ( I have not got red/blue glasses ! )
Here you go. I hate anaglyphs, so the first thing I always do when interesting ones show up is convert them back to stereo pairs.

That worked well, thank you
>> goes off to google anaglyph converter

>>>

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:12 pm

Guest wrote:
Chris Peterson wrote:
Guest wrote:Is there a X-eye stereo version anywhere ? ( I have not got red/blue glasses ! )
Here you go. I hate anaglyphs, so the first thing I always do when interesting ones show up is convert them back to stereo pairs.
That worked well, thank you
>> goes off to google anaglyph converter :ssmile: >>>

I use Photoshop. The Channel Mixer lets me put the red channel into all three for one image, and the green and blue channels into all three for the other.

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 1:13 am

Channel Mixer is the best. I think it's got to be one of the most under utilized tools in Photoshop because people don't realize how powerful it is.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 28, 2016 9:39 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: put the red channel into all three for one image, and the green and blue channels into all three for the other.

Ah! I see, thanks for the idea,,, I dont have Photoshop but a quick fiddle in Gimp ( with "decompose") and , after a bit of experiment with my right and my left (!), I got it

Cheers.

Starship Asterisk*

APOD: Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph (2016 Nov 25)

APOD: Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph (2016 Nov 25)

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Peculiar Anaglyph

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