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If you want to REALLY see Mercury up close and personal, take a look at this absolutely HUGE mosaic of the planet. It was put together by Jason Perry, who actually works with the Cassini mission but in his spare time stitched together 66 images from the MDIS narrow angle camera from the MESSENGER mission’s second flyby of Mercury in October 2008, along with some data from the Mariner 10 mission in the 1970’s. The full file is 20 MB, with a resolution of 0.6 kilometers (0.37 miles) per pixel. What fun! —for us, that is. It took Perry four days just to set up his software, according to Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog.
Enjoy!
What an awesome 66-image mosaic of Mercury! The full 20Mb image definitely whets the appetite for imaging to begin in earnest after orbital insertion. The mosaic gives one the illusion of flying over the planets surface.
Wow – just put it on the big screen at work, and it is damn impressive! Mighty fine job old chap.
This spacecraft is certainly one I’ll be following more keenly even than usual.
You are a different bread of people to consider this fun. I could see doing this for a change or to reachout and touch someone.
Wikepedias definition of Fun: “Recreation or fun is the expenditure of time in a manner designed for therapeutic refreshment of one’s body or mind.”
…I am glad that he used his ability to produce something that is a wonder and then once you come down from the wonder I start to wonder why there are some many old and new impact craters on the surface. I mean what purpose do they serve. Testing it out to see if it will stay together or maybe the obvious?
It looks like someone has a chip on their shoulder the size of a medium-sized crater on Mercury. =D
Anyways, what a wonder mosaic! It’s nice to see humble Mercury in all its glory!
I can think of only one word; enchanting!
To all involved, thank you for this spectacular eye candy.
Another word — Fun.