Today’s APOD

IN-CLASS QUIZ TODAYHand in Homework 3 TODAYNext Week: Kirkwood open Oct. 8Read Chapter 5 (Earth) next week Quiz 4 on Oct. 10 (in class)

The Sun Today

A100 Pictures!

Falcon 1

Carries a hexagonal aluminum alloy chamber as a simulated payload (weight 364 lbs, about five feet long)

An elliptical orbit of 500 km by 700 km, 9.2 degrees inclination from the equator

First privately launched vehicle to make orbit

Oct. 2, 1608Invention of the Telescope

Hans Lipperhey, spectacle-maker Middelburg, Zeeland, Netherlands States General discussed Lipperhey's

application for a patent on the telescope on Oct. 2 (denied!)

Others also claim to have invented the telescope, but documentation not available

News of the telescope spread rapidly!

Homework Review

The Solar System Collaboratory (solarsystem.colorado.edu)

Remember Kepler’s 3rd Law

p2 = a3

Astronomical Imaging Spacecraft use

cameras that measure light intensity only – no color

Cameras take pictures through colored filters

Each picture is a black & white image of the light intensity at a particular color.

Opportunity’s view into Victoria Crater on Mars

Astronomy Rules!

Astronomy

is looking up!

Making Color Images

Multiple images are taken in different colored filters

Images are combined to produce a color picture

Panchromatic Cameras

“Camera Mast Assembly” on Spirit and Opportunity

Two CCD camerasEach camera contains

a filter wheel with filters that pass only specific colors of light

Getting the Colors Right

Each rover has a color calibration target From B&W images of the calibration target, image

scientists adjust the balance of color in the final, combined image by controlling the brightness of each B&W image when added together

The goal is to reproduce what it really looks like

Better eyes than ours…The rover cameras are sensitive to a wider

spectrum of light than our eyes can seeCameras include ultraviolet and near-

infrared filters to record images at wavelengths we can’t see

These filters enhance contrast for analyzing geological features

Pseudo-Color

BW intensity maps to color

No relation to true color

Victoria Crater in Color

TO DO LIST:

Hand in Homework 3 TODAYNext Week: Kirkwood open Oct. 8Read Chapter 5 (Earth) next week Quiz 5 on Friday, Oct. 10 + HW4