posted 10-14-2018 01:04 PM               

Apollo 14 took high-resolution photos of the lunar surface from orbit with a modified Hycon KA-7A Aerial Reconnaissance Camera. The results produced from these military-grade optics and large-format film would be of incredible high resolutions.

And while other large-format photos of the lunar surface taken on Apollo 15, 16 and 17 are online in a mind-boggling 4.8 Gigapixels, high enough to discern Apollo equipment at the landing sites, high-resolution scans of the Apollo 14 KA-7A photos are missing.

The magazines used in the KA-7A camera were numbered AS14-79 and AS14-80.

First, below is a list of currently online sources for these photos, albeit in low and moderate resolution. (To my knowledge)

1. Scans of Apollo 14 image catalog by Awe130
   Notes: Awe130 has high-resolution scans of his catalog, but does not want to publish them. Perhaps someone from here can request access to the high-res scans?

2. Scans of Apollo 14 image catalog by NASA
   Notes: As14-80 frames start at PDF file page 9.

3. Scans of Apollo 14 science report
   Notes: page 282 til 288

4. Two AS14-80 frames scanned from (presumed) prints, see two links bottom page

5. Various images from his own, and other sources, as provided by Paul (cS: One Big Monkey).

6. The U.S. National Archives has two frames: 6.1, 6.2

We will present an other source for the images, and in much greater resolution and fidelity than previously online. Most of our scans were previously only available as ultra-low resolution scans from the Apollo 14 photo catalog.

We will be providing the highest-resolution scans of these photos online to date.

I use my Epson Perfection V750 Pro to scan the gargantuan print in six sections, making sure there is ample overlap between the scans. Vuescan 9 outputs two files, a contrast/brightness enhanced scan, and the uncorrected RAW scan. Both files are saved as 16-bit grayscale uncompressed TIFFs. Sharp prints are scanned at 800 DPI, soft prints are scanned at 300 DPI.

Paul then uses Photoshop to merge the six individual scans back into a single image. The combined scan is saved in two versions; the uncorrected RAW version, and a contrast enhanced, sharpened version to try and get the most detail out of the prints possible. Due to the nature of this process, there may be some visible stitching where two scans meet.

The resultant image resolution is 307 Megapixels.

A photo of one of the prints: AS14-80-10503

A full HD preview of the links below:
AS14-80-10441

• Full-res 307-megapixel download of raw merge
  
• Full-res 307-megapixel download of the contrast enhanced/sharpened merge

posted 10-21-2018 11:07 AM               

AS14-80-10441: LRO on the left, Apollo 14 Hycon on the right.

AS14-80-10503: This print was not sharp, so I only scanned at 300DPI. The resolution is still good:

Here is a list with the photos and the progression:

• 10412: Not yet scanned!
  
• 10441: Individual scans, merged.
  
• 10444: Individual scans, merged.
  
• 10453: Individual scans, merged.
  
• 10455: Individual scans, not yet merged.
  
• 10459: Individual scans, merged.
  
• 10466: Individual scans, not yet merged.
  
• 10503: Individual scans, merged.
  
• 10518: Not yet scanned!
  
• 10535: Individual scans, merged.

posted 10-30-2018 12:26 PM               

All of the 10 prints have been scanned and can be found on archive.org.

AS14-80 prints:
Subject: 20x24" b/w darkroom prints
Medium: 20x24" darkroom paper
Scanner: Epson Perfection V750 Pro
Scan software: Vuescan 9
OS: Windows 10
Scan Resolution: Between 300 and 800 DPI, depends on print sharpness.
File extension: Tiff

Notes:
!LARGE FILE SIZES!
File size of individual frames varies from 17 to 125MB.
File size of merges varies from 124mb to 600mb.

Paul (One Big Monkey) then uses Photoshop to merge the six individual scans back into a single image. The combined scan is saved in two versions; the uncorrected RAW version, and a contrast enhanced, sharpened version to try and get the most detail out of the prints possible. Due to the nature of this process, there may be some visible stitching where scans meet.

Individual scans provided as AS14-80-10###-C#-I#-F#, merged files uploaded with "merge-C#-I#"" suffix.

C1I1= Colour fade/cast correction enabled. ICE Infrared Spot/dust removal enabled set to light. I2 = set to medium. Highlight / dark values enhancement for greater contrast, usually very conservative to not blow highlights/dark values.

C0I0 / RAW = Colour fade/cast correction disabled. ICE Infrared Spot/dust removal disabled. Unprocessed scan.

F## = frame number of set or single image scanned in multiple sections.

Below is a list of full-res merged files as JPGs (Between 8 and 75 MB each)

1. AS14-80-10412
   
2. AS14-80-10441
   
3. AS14-80-10444
   
4. AS14-80-10453
   
5. AS14-80-10455
   
6. AS14-80-10459
   
7. AS14-80-10466
   
8. AS14-80-10503
   
9. AS14-80-10518
   
10. AS14-80-10535

posted 11-11-2018 10:55 AM               

(Disclaimer: I and Paul are not from NASA or endorsed by them. We are doing this in our own free time.)

This archive contains 251 photos taken on Apollo 14 by a modified Hycon KA-7A camera. These magazines were designated as AS14-79 and AS14-80.

I would like to thank the NSSDCA for scanning and providing magazine AS14-79 and AS14-80. I would like to thank Paul for processing the NSSDCA .TIFF files.

These photos were acquired by requesting NSSDCA dataset PSPG-00256. A film or digital copy of AS14-79 and AS14-80 was requested. The NSSDCA scanned a film for this request and several months later the resultant digital dataset was provided.

Each file is 23 MB and has a resolution of 6016*4016 pixels.

The NSSDCA provided TIFF files appear to be Nikon D750 raw files, which can only be correctly opened with special software. Paul was kind enough to batch-process all raw files. Each file was put through a DNG converted, Photoshop will then allow it to be imported normally. This caused the images to turn brown, which was corrected by turning them grayscale.

posted 11-13-2018 02:27 PM            

I have now completed as much detective work as I can on the photographs. It seems that the last image with any discernible feature on it was taken on the western edge of a crater south west of Lindsay (AS14-80-10765).

However the last photograph with any useful detail in it is AS14-80-10641 (roughly 63 km from the future Apollo 16 landing site), and arguably this one is where things started to go wrong as it seems very blurred in the bottom left corner.

Magazine 79's images took more tracking down. The transcript implied that Roosa did some testing with this magazine soon after magazine 80 failed after discussion with Houston. Careful examination of the terrain under the flight path showed this wasn't the case, so it was back to the transcript where we find this:

I did not take the LTC photo target 16; I figured that Gordon had implied that it might be a waste of film to shoot them this way; I thought maybe we could get it fixed, we could save the film. I did shoot the landing because I figured, even if it is working - that one we wouldn't have another chance at. And I fired 39 frames off of magazine B [the transcript refers to 'B' a couple of times, I believe it's an error] on the landing per the pad. I don't know whether it will turn out or not, because it - it clanked and fluttered the whole time.

posted 11-18-2018 11:40 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by heng44:
This photo was released for Apollo 13

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posted 11-18-2018 08:56 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by One Big Monkey:
And I fired 39 frames off of magazine B [the transcript refers to 'B' a couple of times, I believe it's an error] on the landing per the pad.

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posted 09-15-2019 02:45 PM               

The print has been hung on a wall for visitors to see. Visitors will be able to use a magnifying glass to see surface, rock and crater detail. Ed's photo is seen at the bottom right, Paul and my scanning work is seen on the right middle frame.