Posted by zorgon, on April 9, 2007 at 10:04 GMT (ID: 3101480)

I see a lot of images posted on the color issue on Mars... NASA shows what they call "real color" which are usually dark with a brownish reddish tint...

The CP crowd shows us images where the scenery is as bright as any on Earth...

Well they can't BOTH be right...

NASA says... the enhanced color images are shown "as they would appear in Earth level light..." Okay I can buy that... if you had the same amount of sunlight on Mars as you do on Earth, then those images that show blue sky etc would in fact be true color... This makes sense ...

But pray tell me how if you were standing on Mars that you would get the same level of light on Mars as you do on Earth? Last I checked the Sun was a LOT further away and appears a lot smaller in the Martian sky....

Do we just ignore this minor annoying detail? I can deal with that... as soon as you show me where the extra light comes from.... 

Yes the SKY IS BLUE on Mars... but it is darker because of the lack of sunlight, and because there are planet wide dust storms almost constantly... and its colder for the same reason... and unless we can add a new source of heat and light, nothing will change...

Sunset on Mars...

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

quote: Originally posted by blue bird
Talking about images - deserve a completely new thread, my friend.

Nah too many threads on Mars images already hard to keep up to date with all the finds LOL :P We need one giant thread for all of them... 

Breaking News.... Must see Video

NASA shows absolute proof of Alien activity on Mars...

zorgon - great animation...for a moment I was landing on Mars! 

quote: Originally posted by curiousbeliever
"The sky is blue on Mars. It just looks red in many photos because of NASA photoshop artists. I think NASA even admitted there was a blue sky at one point and said that it looks red in the photos because of the dust from dust storms (damage control)."
 

Image Source

SOURCE:  Hidden Colors of Mars...

quote: Originally posted by undo
now that's interesting!

But look here colors on Viking image : coz - red is caused by storm, when storm is gone - colors are normal!!

Excerpt

"Temporary, the surface illumination is really red, caused by dust-storms, darkening the sky. The image on the left was taken shortly after or during such a storm and the diffuse light with almost no shadows is visible. In contrast to this, the image on the right, shows sharp shadows and clear blue sky, the normal condition on Mars.
On the image-data of the Viking- and Pathfinder-Missions, this diffuse illumination is a very rare condition and not the normal state, as NASA seems to publish it with their dull-red picture..."
 

Image Source

Image Source

What is more than interesting is 'red' sky - but that was not the case back in '76 as we can see from Viking images - original data no corection!!! - SOURCE
 

Image Source

*hands blue bird the smoking gun award* 

Well the one thing I have noticed is that while NASA shows the "red", those that try to convince us that the sky is "blue" do exactly the same thing NASA does, only in the other direction...

Image one is clearly adjusted to show the darker red that NASA likes, while the other one is so clearly enhanced to the blue side that everything has a blue tint.... so neither image shows true color

quote: by Bluebird
What is more than interesting is 'red' sky - but that was not the case back in '76 as we can see from Viking images - original data no correction!!!

Only problem with that is that the Viking Rover shown in your image is blue as well... but it is really WHITE...

Image Source

Now then I too have a Mars Color image... 

The image below taken by Spirit Rover is one from NASA and is "Radiometrically Calibrated" This image represents true color on Mars. These images are not generally released to the public yet are not difficult to find. However for the time being you will have to track them down yourself as we are not ready to hand over this source just yet... 

Now I have done field work in geology for most of my life and the bluish black rocks and the sand in the image below look just like the volcanic Scoria, a type of Basalt in the desert sands here in Nevada... This summer I will go and take some photos of the area so we have a direct comparison.
 

In the meantime below is a small sample of Scoria or Vesicular Basalt. You can see the bluish black natural color of this material and it is readily found on Earth as one of the more common lavas...
 

This gives me a pretty good reference to be able to see that the image above is indeed true color on Mars... 

Now the image below...

Mars or Earth... you decide...
 

Source Data Page

The Pancam does an acceptable job on the red, blue, and green panels; however, the yellow panel appears orange in the Pancam image. This may be a result of the unusual pigments used on the calibration target and the narrowness of the Pancam filters. The image in Figure 3 on the far right shows the calibration target taken by the Pancam on Mars. The Pancam image on Earth and the Pancam image on Mars appear quite similar. This is not the result one would expect if the illumination on Mars was substantially redder than that on Earth.
 

Perhaps this is the best goal for the production of color imagery from Mars. Rather than search endlessly for the unknown illumination of the surface, the color calibration charts should be used to render the Martian scenery as it would appear on Earth. Martian objects would be more easily understood if they were illuminated by lighting conditions with which we are all familiar.

In any case, the corrections for the Martian illumination are suspect. In any published final image, it is essential that the assumed illumination model be the same for the colored panels as it is for the gray. These panels are only centimeters apart and they are surely bathed identical illumination.

3. SUMMARY

Images of the color calibration chart taken on Mars for the express purpose of verifying calibration seem to be in reasonable agreement with calibration images taken on Earth under Earth-like illumination conditions. However, calibration charts shown inadvertently on production panoramic images are not compatible with those images made for the express purpose of calibration. This incompatibility is in two areas. First, the gray panel pixel values, while having the same slope in both images, have substantially different offsets. A hypothesis of variable illumination is only expected to change the slope. The offset at the darkest pixel values should always be zero. Black pixels, which are at the intercept, should not be affected by illumination. The observed offsets are preferential to the red and minimize blue. However, in addition to these unusual linear changes, there is also observed a non-linear suppression of blue reflectivity in the L6 channel on the blue color panel. The L6 channel in the mosaic panorama shows virtually no response on the blue color panel.
Color calibration charts in production MER images should either match the charts generated during calibration or should differ from them by a single uniform illumination model, expressed as overall multipliers for the red, green and blue channels.
Otherwise, production Martian images should either be made using the color chart to match Earth illumination, or should be made by trusting the luminosity calibrations made on Earth before launch.

Evaluation Report by Lockheed Martin http://mars.spherix.com/5555-30.PDF

Posted about the red deviation several times before 

Look up Keith Laney, for how he found the correct values for the different camera's (pathfinder's, viking's etc) and all of his corrected images.

Also read what he says on his site about it.. it's not necessarily a devious intentional trick to color it red.

Some real pretty images, I love the one with the rocks and ground covered with white "snow" the most...

Image Source

quote: Originally posted by David2012
Posted about the red deviation several times before :)
Some real pretty images, I love the one with the rocks and ground covered with white "snow" the most
 

LOL NASA uses Red shift, Keith uses Blue shift ( as evident again by the blue color on the corner that shows a piece of the rover... So we will never see an "unshifted" image it seems

:

quote: Originally posted by David2012
Some real pretty images, I love the one with the rocks and ground covered with white "snow" the most...

It's early morning thin layer of water frost, near Viking Lander 2 site.

quote: Originally posted by zorgon
LOL NASA uses red shift, Keith uses Blue shift ( as evident again by the blue color on the corner that shows a piece of the rover... So we will never see an "unshifted" image it seems

Couldn't agree more!

I found this on some forum - question about why are we not sending this camera setup to Mars ???

- t a k e n at 400 m i l e s above earth !!!

quote: Originally posted by blue bird
Couldn't agree more!
I found this on some forum - question about why are we not sending
this camera setup to Mars ???

Ah yes the Ikonos Satellite owned by Space imaging "GeoEye" They have a great poster and zoomable image of AREA 51 - GROOM LAKE

I have posted this satellite before showing the Tsangpo River Gorge in full capability of this satellite... here it is again for those who missed it...(images of this quality cost thousands of dollars) (click for larger version)

Here is the BIG PICTURE (slow load it takes 4 scans to complete)

Now this company has one image of the oon and I wrote them asking if they had more images. They do not image the moon, and their website states simply. "We will not be taking photos of the moon.." Short sweet and to the point.. but it leaves me asking "Why?" Their answer was that the satellite was designed for Earth imaging...

Yes we could easily put such a camera on a Lunar or Mars orbiter... and Department of Defense descriptions (as well as manufactures) state that they do indeed have such cameras out there...

Its just that you and I won't get to see those images any time soon... 

Here is Keith Laney - a photo-processing expert - processed Spirit picture from Mars:
 
 

Image Source

Source; Keith Laney website
 

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