Jupiter (Planet) -- Photographs from space; Jupiter probes; Voyager Project
Originally, the Deputy Team Leader was Geoffrey A. Briggs, a young
British-born physicist from JPL. However, in 1977 Briggs took a position
at NASA Headquarters in Washington and was replaced by geologist
Laurence A. Soderblom of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff,
Arizona. An energetic and articulate scientist, Soderblom, with his
interest in satellite geology, complemented Smith, whose personal
scientific interests are directed more toward the atmosphere of Jupiter.
The objectives of imaging involved multicolor photography of Jupiter and
its satellites. Both wide- and narrow-angle cameras were needed to
obtain the highest possible resolution while retaining the capability to
study global-scale features on Jupiter and the satellites. In normal
photographic terms, both cameras used telephoto lenses. For the
wide-angle camera, a focal length of 200 millimeters was selected,
giving a field of view of about 3 degrees. This field is similar to that
obtained with a 400-millimeter telephoto lens on a 35-millimeter camera.
The narrow-angle Voyager camera has a focal length of 1500 millimeters
and field of view of 0.4 degrees. The camera optics are combinations of
mirrors and lenses, designed for extreme stability of focus and for
freedom from distortion.
Each camera has a rotating filter wheel that can be used to select the
color of the light that reaches the camera. For the wide-angle camera,
these colors are clear, violet, blue, green, orange, and three special
bands for selective observation in sodium light (589-nanometer
wavelength), and in methane spectral lines at 541 nanometers and 618
nanometers. For the narrow-angle camera, the filters are clear,
ultraviolet, violet, blue, green, and orange. To create a color picture,
the cameras are commanded to take, in rapid succession, pictures of the
same area in blue, green, and orange light. These three pictures can
then be reconstructed on Earth into a “true” color image. Other
combinations of colors are used to investigate particular scientific
problems and to determine the spectrum of sunlight reflected from
features on Jupiter and its satellites.
The detector in the cameras is not photographic film but the surface of
a selenium-sulfur vidicon television tube, 11 millimeters square. Unlike
most commercial TV cameras, these tubes are designed for slow-scan
readout, providing 48 seconds to acquire each picture. The shutter speed
can be varied from a fraction of a second (for Jupiter and Io) to many
minutes (for searches for faint features, such as aurorae on the night
side of Jupiter).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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