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Author
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Topic: Photo of the week 144 (August 4)
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heng44
Member Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 08-04-2007 02:55 AM
   
 Here is a photo from our upcoming STS-7 High-Res Image Library. This was the first time the Space Shuttle was photographed from another spacecraft, the Shuttle Pallet Satellite or SPAS, in June 1983. I remember first seeing a series of spectacular photos in Aviation Week. Of course a short while later I received a set of prints from NASA, which will all be on the disc. |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 08-04-2007 05:15 AM
I remember seeing these photos on the evening news the day they were released. For some reason, that's a vivid memory that got etched into my 11-year old brain. |
SpaceCat
Member Posts: 151
From: Florida, US
Registered: May 2006
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posted 08-05-2007 09:04 PM
Seeing the ever so slight curvature of the earth at the top of the photo really gives a sense of scale. Even from LEO, these photos drive home just how vast and lonely it is "out there," even for a "big" machine! |
tfrielin
Member Posts: 162
From: Athens, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 08-06-2007 11:20 AM
quote:
Originally posted by heng44:
This was the first time the Space Shuttle was photographed from another spacecraft, the Shuttle Pallet Satellite or SPAS, in June 1983.
There are other photos shot that day that show it better than you can see here, but if you look closely you can see the Canadarm crooked in the shape of a 7 for STS-7. |
cspg
Member Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006
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posted 08-07-2007 12:47 AM
It's a beautiful photo of a lost ship...Can anyone explain the "crosses" that show up on this photo? the same crosses appear on Apollo-era photographs but it's been a while I haven't seen them (on recent shuttle flights)? What's their purpose? Are they linked to the hardware used to shoot the pictures? Thanks. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-07-2007 02:16 AM
From Clavius.org: The lunar surface Hasselblad cameras were fitted with a device called a reseau plate. The reseau plate is a clear glass plate on which is etched small black crosshairs, called "fiducials" by some and "reticles" by others. As each film frame is drawn into place, it is pressed against the reseau plate so that the picture is taken through the plate. This results in an image of the fiducials being superimposed over the image focused through the lens.A reseau grid is used in the science of photogrammetry to establish a geometrical basis for measuring objects in photographs. It can be used to correct for any misalignment of the film in the camera, or distortions in the image after development or electronic scanning. Since the location of the marks on the reseau plate is known with great precision, correcting for distortion is a simple matter of manipulating the image until the marks are in the correct location. If you take several photographs of an object from different angles, and locate the features of that object in relation to the fiducials, and you know something about the design of the camera, you can actually reconstruct the three-dimensional geometry of the object. This is what photogrammetry tries to do. Mapmakers use photogrammetry to render aerial photographs into maps. Architects use photogrammetry to measure the features of existing buildings quickly and easily. |
cspg
Member Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006
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posted 08-07-2007 08:01 AM
Thanks Robert! |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 08-07-2007 01:01 PM
If I'm not mistaken, the Hasselbald used on the Pallet on the STS-7 mission was one leftover from the Apollo program. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 09-04-2007 09:10 PM
Well I remember the post flight press conference for that mission said that one of the cameras on SPAS was used in the Little Joe program (they didn't say if it was LJ1 or LJ2). As such, that camera has some history behind it, that is for sure. |
ASCAN1984
Member Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 12-18-2008 05:38 AM
Why does that photo look so much better than anything we have seen since involving an orbiter photographed from above, e.g. from the ISS? |
NavySpaceFan
Member Posts: 655
From: Norfolk, VA
Registered: May 2007
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posted 12-18-2008 07:02 AM
I feel the hi rez shots of the orbiters from ISS are way better than this shot just for the level of detail that can be seen thanks to modern digital cameras. The best pics of an orbiter in flight prior to ISS came from the IMAX camera mounted on the ORFEUS-SPAS satellite deployed during STS-51.
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