[meteorite-list] Iron Meteorite on Mars (Color Photo)

[Darren Garrison]

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 22:18:33 -0700, "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:

>The number of pixels has nothing to do with resolution. What matters is the 
>size of each pixel and the focal length of the camera. In the case of the 
>Pancam, that's 16um and 38mm, giving a resolution of about one arcminute- 
>slightly better than the human eye.
>

Okay, then, cut the word "resolution" out of my reply and replace it with whichever word means 

"total number of pixels available in the image, this being the factor-- assuming good optics-- that
determines the size at which an image can be printed and still look good"

which is what 99 percent of people concider "resolution" to be, and will continue to do so (and
hopefully this won't degrade into an argument similar to the recent ones on what "magnetic" means).

Whichever word is used to mean what I obviously meant when I use "resolution" the same way most
people use the word "resolution", the CCDs on the rovers are only 1 megapixel-- which means that the
photo will never be as high(whatever the word is that almost everyone else accepts as "resolution")
enough to make a large print that looks as sharp and detailed as would come from a film camera or
higher-end digital camera.

Yes, the one megapixel CCDs on the rovers are better than the 3ish megapixel camera on
consumer-grade digitals, but the 10+ megapixel CCDs on pro models are better than the one megapixel
CCDs on the rovers.  And, IMHO, if I were somehow standing on Mars and my camera surviving the
conditions, I think that my 5 megapixel Sony F707 would take a better picture ("better" meaning
being of higher captured detail and able to be magnifed more and printed at a larger size and stil
look good) than the composite color photo from the rover's CCD.

>Chris
>
>*****************************************
>Chris L Peterson
>Cloudbait Observatory
>http://www.cloudbait.com
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Darren Garrison" <cynapse at charter.net>
>To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
>Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 9:44 PM
>Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Iron Meteorite on Mars (Color Photo)
>
>
>On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 20:34:08 -0800, Nicholas Gessler <gessler at ucla.edu> 
>wrote:
>
>>I'd like to see it in the resolution they receive it in.
>>It's likely that the ones released for public consumption are lower Rez.
>>Are they?
>
>It can never be too very high in resolution-- the CCD is only 1 megapixel:
>
>http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/pancam_techwed_040114.html
>
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