Author Topic: Ames Imaging Experts Create Unique Views of STS-134 Launch  (Read 11416 times)

Online robertross

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Ames Imaging Experts Create Unique Views of STS-134 Launch

06.03.11

Imaging experts funded by the Space Shuttle Program and located at NASA's Ames Research Center prepared this video by merging nearly 20,000 photographs taken by a set of six cameras capturing 250 images per second at the STS-134 launch on May 16, 2011. From seven seconds before takeoff to six seconds after, the cameras took simultaneous images at six different exposure settings. The images were processed and combined in this video to balance the brightness of the rocket engine output with the regular daylight levels at which the orbiter can be seen. The processing software digitally removes pure black or pure white pixels from one image and replaces them with the most detailed pixel option from the five other images. This technique can help visualize debris falling during a launch or support research involving intense light sources like rocket engines, plasma experiments and hypersonic vehicle engines.


http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/552764main_comparison.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/shuttle_station/features/sts-134_launch_photo-video.html

All video/image credits: NASA / Louise Walker / J.T. Heineck

Public Affairs contact: Jessica Culler, 650-604-4789
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
NOTE: there's also some video & other images in there
« Last Edit: 06/04/2011 03:39 pm by robertross »

Online rocketguy101

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very cool, would be really awesome if they could colorize it!
David

Offline shuttlefanatic

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Thanks for posting.  It's like HDR on steroids!

Offline Andrewwski

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very cool, would be really awesome if they could colorize it!

Here's a quick amateur attempt at it.
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Online Naito

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that is SO COOL! also made me realize how difficult it must be to synchronize and aim 6 cameras like that with all the vibration coming from the launch.
Carl C.

Offline ugordan

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You can actually see how the different cameras shake differently as the merged image features don't line up perfectly.

Offline Skylab

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very cool, would be really awesome if they could colorize it!

Here's a quick amateur attempt at it.
Thanks, now we know what a shuttle launch in 1945 would've looked like! :D

Offline Comga

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The processing allows us to see into the SRB exhause but obscurs the SSME exhaust, which is visible against the sky in the single camera footage.  Wonder how one could extent the technique to preserve that element of the image.

All in all, very neat, like the famous slow motion movies (pre "videos") of Saturn V launches.
What kind of wastrels would dump a perfectly good booster in the ocean after just one use?

Online Naito

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I'd love to get a raw copy of the images and try my hand at doing the HDR myself actually =p
Carl C.

Offline Sarah

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very cool, would be really awesome if they could colorize it!

I haven't seen anything come even close to capturing what the booster flame really looks like. I always wondered if putting something like a welders helmet or something similar over the camera lens would capture it.
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Online rocketguy101

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Re: Ames Imaging Experts Create Unique Views of STS-134 Launch
« Reply #10 on: 06/08/2011 04:15 am »
very cool, would be really awesome if they could colorize it!

Here's a quick amateur attempt at it.
Thanks, now we know what a shuttle launch in 1945 would've looked like! :D

hah! my thoughts exactly!!  very nice touch!
David

Offline Negative Return

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Re: Ames Imaging Experts Create Unique Views of STS-134 Launch
« Reply #11 on: 06/08/2011 06:13 pm »
very cool, would be really awesome if they could colorize it!

Here's a quick amateur attempt at it.
Thanks, now we know what a shuttle launch in 1945 would've looked like! :D

Ha.  Actually it looks a bit like the 1970s pre-shuttle renderings of what a launch would look like.  I guess no one envisioned just how bright the SRB plume would be.

Offline simonbp

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Re: Ames Imaging Experts Create Unique Views of STS-134 Launch
« Reply #12 on: 06/08/2011 11:01 pm »
Ha.  Actually it looks a bit like the 1970s pre-shuttle renderings of what a launch would look like.  I guess no one envisioned just how bright the SRB plume would be.

Well, they would have if they saw a Titan III launch; even for a Delta II, it's the SRBs that dominate when you watch a launch with you eyes...

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