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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Skyman, post: 7347651, member: 28299&quot;]With all the hoopla over the landing of <i>Perseverance</i> on Mars, some people have forgotten that the rover <i>Curiosity</i> is still chugging away in Gale Crater on Mars.&nbsp; It landed there August 6, 2012.&nbsp; Many of you on these boards, but not all, know that it has a special target for scaling the color of its images.&nbsp; The process is called camera calibration.&nbsp; This color target is a grid of assorted colors etc.&nbsp; One of the items in this grid is actually a Lincoln VDB cent.&nbsp; It&#039;s rather heavily cleaned, and is not a particularly good calibration target, but clearly there was a coin geek at JPL or amongst the geologists who helped design the rover. </p><p><br /></p><p>From NASA&#039;s website it states, &quot;The penny is a nod to geologists&#039; tradition of placing a coin or other object of known scale as a size reference in close-up photographs of rocks, and it gives the public a familiar object for perceiving size easily when it will be viewed by MAHLI (a camera) on Mars&quot;.&nbsp; Here&#039;s a link to the article:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15285.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15285.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15285.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a picture of the VDB. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1281685[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Curiosity</i> has been sending back stunning images of Gale Crater.&nbsp; It is climbing up Mt. Sharp, the central peak in the crater.&nbsp; The peak is roughly 15,000 feet high.&nbsp; Here are two recent pictures.&nbsp; The first is a selfie of <i>Curiosity</i> next to a formation called Mont Mercou.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1281686[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The second image is a panorama looking at Mont Mercou.&nbsp; I have uploaded it in its full HD format.&nbsp; If you are interested, drag it and drop it to your computer and blow it up to its full size of 8192 x 2021 pixels.&nbsp; The detail is amazing.&nbsp; FWIW, in the image you&#039;ll notice what appears to be a mountain range in the far left and right background.&nbsp; That is actually the crater wall of Gale Crater.&nbsp; Clearly the VDB and its calibration compatriots are doing a great job. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1281687[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Post a picture of a VDB of yours. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1281688[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1281689[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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