APOD: Yutu on a Little Planet (2016 Feb 13)

[APOD Robot]

Yutu on a Little Planet

Explanation: Tracks lead to a small robot perched near the top of this bright little planet. Of course, the planet is really the Moon. The robot is the desk-sized Yutu rover, leaving its looming Chang'e 3 lander after a after a mid-December 2013 touch down in the northern Mare Imbrium. The little planet projection is a digitally warped and stitched mosaic of images from the lander's terrain camera covering 360 by 180 degrees. Ultimately traveling over 100 meters, Yutu came to a halt in January 2014. The lander's instruments are still working though, after more than two years on the lunar surface. Meanwhile, an interactive panoramic version of this little planet is available here.

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[Boomer12k]

Well...then it shouldn't take long...should it?

:---[===] *

[Beyond]

Whhheeeeeeeee! With the interactive, you can go round and round and round and round and round.... till you fall off the Yutu-go-round. I also noticed that Yutu did a donut. Even though it was a plain donut, any moon donut is special, but then, Rob is the expert on donuts.

[JohnD]

heThat distorted picture reminded me of the Secret Portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, an apparent smear of colour on a tray, that became a miniature of the Pretender when reflected in a silvered column placed on the tray. http://www.westhighlandmuseum.org.uk/co ... -portrait/ The technique an "Anamorphic", and some very clever pictures can be done, some in 3D! http://www.boredpanda.com/anamorphic-cylinder-art/
It occurred to me: if you printed out that pic, placed a silvered cylinder around it and peered over the edge, would you see a flat Lunar plain, with the Chinese spacecraft on it, undistorted? I'd try the experiment, but don't know how to obtain a cylinder, silvered inside, without cutting up a Dewar Flask, without breaking it!
JOhn

[daddyo]

That's great.

Stock owners of Reynolds Wrap should be happy too.

[JohnD]

Thank you. daddyo!

Baking foil! Of course! Off to the 'lab'!

John

Later - shucks! Baking foil doesn't have the mirror surface to provide the reflection needed, even on the shiny side. J.

[DavidLeodis]

The interactive version is interesting. Clicking on the vertical line of 3 dots brings up a 'Projections and Nav Modes' feature in which there is a 'Little Planet View' and a 'Panini View'. I've not heard of a Panini View before but I did not readily see any obvious difference between the two so I wonder if I should have noticed a difference and if so where.

[JohnD]

Oh, well! The last link in the blurb to that APOD takes you to what I hoped to see when deAnamorphed: https://www.360cities.net/image/lunar-p ... e-3-lander

And now I can look at at it properly, I can see that daddyo wasn't giving me a hint towards baking foil, but commenting on the amount of gold (?) foil the mother ship is wrapped in. Just like many others, daddyo, it's protection from raw sunlight.

John