Tuesday, February 22, 2011

ASU compiles highest resolution photo mosaic of the moon


The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, managed by ASU, has compiled one of the highest resolution mosaics of the lunar nearside ever produced. The Bad Astronomy blog gushes over it:

"I’ve spent a lot of time at the eyepiece looking at the Moon, but I’ve never seen it like this. The detail is amazing, and the shadowing provides a sense of depth you just can’t get when observing the full Moon from home. It’s beautiful."
"This is actually a mosaic of about 1300 separate images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Wide-Angle Camera — the total size is a whopping 24,000 x 24,000 pixels, producing a resolution of about 145 meters/pixel. The full-size version is a monster 550 Mb TIF file (seriously, don’t grab that one unless you need it!), and you can get a more palatable 1400 x 1400 pixel version with labels, too."

You need to look at the higher resolution mosaic, rather than this snapshot at right, to appreciate the incredible detail. [right, credit NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]