APOD: Stereo Vesta (2011 Aug 20)

[APOD Robot]

Stereo Vesta

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to 4 Vesta. A 500 kilometer diameter world, Vesta lies in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This stereo anaglyph was constructed from two separate images recorded on July 24 by the just arrived Dawn spacecraft's framing camera with a resolution of about 500 meters per pixel. The 3D view features Vesta's newly discovered terrain, including long equatorial ridges and troughs and the prominent string of three craters at the upper right dubbed Snowman. Highlighted in 3D, steep sides of many of the craters show streaks of both bright and dark material. Of course, the ion-driven Dawn spacecraft is not marooned off Vesta. After a year exploring the asteroid from orbit, Dawn is scheduled to depart, beginning its journey to Ceres.

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[mtbdudex]

We have 3 or 4 of red/blue glasses leftover from a Hannah-Montana 3D DVD....will show the kids this image and report their feedback.

[Guest]

Is there a cross-eye version anywhere ?
(no glasses here ! )

[rstevenson]

The stereo effect isn't working too well for me this time. Vesta ends up looking more like a flat surface with dents and holes and lumps, rather than a rounded object with dents and holes and lumps. More like a Papadum than an Asteroid.

Rob

[Mikey]

Grape Nuts.

[geckzilla]

Hey Rob, I think it probably looks flat because only the top part of the image actually shows the edge of the asteroid. The rest of it is mostly front on. ...maybe? It's kind of a weird image.

[darrenM42]

So, as a lowly uncivilized Canadian, I don't own a pair of 3D glasses. So I click on the link to find out where in Canada I can find such an advanced technological innovation. Because at the trading post where we Canucks provision ourselves, they only have pemeal bacon, hardtack, blankets, and rye.
So I view the list of locations, which are divisded into two categories. USA and Europe. The trailer park nation and the coutry that thinks mould is a delicacy.
Fifty years ago, this wouldn't have bothered me. In 1961, Canada was the country that Americans went to hunt, fish, and ski. But this is 2011. Our dollar is worth $1.05 American. Our tourist dollars are what is keeping your economy from tanking completely.
I'm completely pissed. Go back to your damn trailers and watch NASCAR. Forget about us until you run out of water.

[owlice]

What, you don't have Amazon? Of course you do, so try here.

I've never watched NASCAR nor lived in a trailer, but I do know how to use Google. Being uncivilized is a choice you've made; I know many fine, civilized Canadians, and deeply resent your slurring them by your ascribing your condition to being Canadian.

[NoelC]

I find this image disappointing. Mostly because of the means of presentation:

1. Because I don't have red/cyan glasses.

2. Because it's not clear where the edge of the asteroid is vs. where someone has arbitrarily cut the image data off to black.

What redeems this APOD is that the just arrived Dawn link takes us to some good high resolution images and the Vesta Full Rotation Movie.

Interesting that Vesta has kind of a "hamburger" like appearance in some views.

The animation of the mission shows some interesting engine firings (i.e., firing for much of the inter-body trajectory)... What technology is this engine that can fire for so long? Is this the ion engine I've heard about?

Edit: Answered my own question: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/ion_prop.asp

-Noel

[BMAONE23]

Darren,
When you are done flaming us go to your local Video store and buy a 3D movie. They always come with 4 pairs of glasses inside. Then you can view these wonderful images and have some other entertainment on those cold nights

[nstahl]

I thought darren's reply was reasonable. And funny. It's good to know about the Amazon.ca source and you can also find them (for three times the price) at Amazon.com.

[owlice]

It's a lot of things, but reasonable is not among them.

$2.75 for 3 pair at Amazon.com.

[orin stepanek]

It's a lot of things, but reasonable is not among them.

$2.75 for 3 pair at Amazon.com.

I got mine free when Hanna was giving them away!

[Ann]

I agree with everything Noel said.

Ann

[NoelC]

Is there a cross-eye version anywhere ?
(no glasses here ! )

Here you go. Made from the red and blue channels of the posted APOD image. The lighting angle change makes it less than a perfect stereogram, but you can at least get an idea of what people with glasses they bought on Amazon.com are seeing.

Vesta Crossed Eyes Stereogram

-Noel

[Guest]

>>Is there a cross-eye version anywhere ?

>Here you go.

Thanks Noel nice one !
bit of an eyestrain but yes it works.

Once upon a time there were lots of nasa data available to peruse and grab pictures to play with,
do I remember Comet Wild amongst other stuff (Mariner etc ?), usually with "raw data" or "uncalibrated" caveats
but all I could find on Dawn were media releases

Malcolm.

[Malcolm]

>>Is there a cross-eye version anywhere ?
>Here you go.
Nice one Noel,

I had problems with extracting red and blue (in GIMP) to make a pair (because of contrast and brigtness probs)
but doing a red+green and a green+blue pair was better and less of an eyestrain,
I'm not an expert, and inexperienced here dont yet know how to best post my doodlings,
you might like to play ! ? ,,,
or maybe the dawn team will pop up and give us the sequential images to fiddle with

Malcolm.

[Czerno_1]

Please someone tell which side illumination on this picture is coming from ? Poor sight here, lacking that information have difficulty in "deciding" which are which, bumps versus hollows.

Thanks, NASA.

[Psnarf]

Where can I purchase cross-eye glasses?

I thought the surface was pretty-much all the same elevation. 3D revealed the top part with the dense population of small round rocks and the right edge as the probable surface, with a deep gouge in the middle, particularly across the central canyon-like feature. Looks like a huge chunk was chipped off by something coming in from the upper right. The remaining surface looks like it was exposed a lot more recently than the rest of the asteroid. Had to be a pretty big object that gave it a glancing blow, yet there is no axial rotation. Where is that bit that was chipped off? Where is the chipper? Then again, all that could be an illusion from the poorly-formed anaglyph?

Whoops! gotta go drop another coin into the electricity meter here at the trailer park. It takes only 0.99999 gold $350 Canadian coins. Used to take quarter dollars, before we got nailed with that AA+ credit rating.

[NoelC]

Please someone tell which side illumination on this picture is coming from ?

From below the observer (and, I might add, from two somewhat different directions in each of the two frames, which further serves to confuse the brain).

-Noel

[alter-ego]

>>Is there a cross-eye version anywhere ?

>Here you go.

Thanks Noel nice one !
bit of an eyestrain but yes it works.

I often prefer relaxed-eye viewing rather than cross-eyed viewing because eye strain is less for me. If you reverse the component images left-to-right (e.g. cut and paste) you'll see the same 3D perspective as the cross-eyed view, but now you don't have to cross your eyes. Just let your eyes relax and re-focus . Note: Simply flipping Noel's side-by-side image 180°, or horizontally, will not change anything. You have to change one of the component images wrt to the other.