Re: Cassini: where are colors and detail?

From: Dan Ledskin (sonnino_at_mailinator.com)
Date: 07/04/04 

Date: 4 Jul 2004 14:11:11 -0700

> It is a black and white camera with a color filter wheel in front. But
> things were happening so fast around ring plane crossing that, according to
> Caroline Porco, they decided not to take the extra time to do filter wheel
> machinations and just went black and white. Detail is what they were after
> so close to the ring plane, but I think color iamges would be made later.
> But according to Porco, they won't be any color images from this passage
> through the ring plane because they didn't take any.
>
> As for detail, from earth those details are due to extensive processing
> (stacking and processing). These first images are raw; I don't think they
> processed at all, so stuff like low contras features will not show up, but
> they will later when they've processed the raw images further.

But why didn't they use a color ccd? I really don't understand.
I think it wouldn't be so difficult to -add- a color camera and to
take some snapshots.... like the ones of Voyager
(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/image/images/saturn/3bg.jpg).
The same thing happens with Mars rovers: we have many "approximate"
colors of the surface, made combining three BW filtered photos.
It would be easier to use a color camera, isn't true? A color camera
doesn't need moving parts (rotating filters), so it's less subject to
failures. It can grab fast objects (no delay but only one snapshot).
It is lighter (less components).

Then what's the real explanation for using a Black&White camera?
Hmmmm......

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Cassini: where are colors and detail?
    ... It is a black and white camera with a color filter wheel in front. ... so close to the ring plane, but I think color iamges would be made later. ... but I think that 1 hi-res color photo is far more ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Cassini: where are colors and detail?
    ... > It is a black and white camera with a color filter wheel in front. ... > so close to the ring plane, but I think color iamges would be made later. ... These first images are raw; ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
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