The image shooting was carried out by the onboard high definition television (HDTV) of the KAGUYA, and it is the world's first high definition image data acquisition of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon.
The image taking was performed twice on October 31. Both were eight-fold speed intermittent shooting (eight minutes is converged to one minute.) The first shooting covered from the northern area of the "Oceanus Procellarum" toward the center of the North Pole, then the second one was from the south to the north on the western side of the "Oceanus Procellarum."
The moving image data acquired by the KAGUYA was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center, and processed by NHK.
The satellite was confirmed to be in good health through telemetry data received at the Usuda station.
Moon Images Shot by the Onboard HDTV of the KAGUYA
©JAXA/NHK |
North Pole Area (still image cut out from the first image shooting) |
This is a still image taken out from the first moving image shooting when the KAGUYA flew from the northern area of the "Oceanus Procellarum"(*1) to the center of the North Pole.
As the altitude near the North Pole is high, the angle of the coming sunlight was lower, thus the shade of the crater topography looks long in the image.
The moving image was taken at 4:07 a.m. on October 31, 2007 (JST) by eight-fold speed intermittent shooting (eight minutes is converged to one minute) from the KAGUYA, and the data was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center on the same day.
(*1) Oceanus Procellarum:
The dark area on the Moon's surface called "ocean." It is located at the left end of the northern hemisphere on the front side of the Moon when we look up at it from the Earth.
©JAXA/NHK |
The western side of the "Oceanus Procellarum" (cut out from the second image shooting) |
This is a still image taken out from the second moving image shooting when the KAGUYA flew from the south to the north on the western side of the "Oceanus Procellarum."
The dark part on the right of the above image is the Ocean (Oceanus Procellarum,) and the light area on the left is called the "highland."
The moving image was taken at 5:51 a.m. on Oct. 31, 2007 (JST) by eight-fold speed intermittent shooting (eight minutes is converged to one minute) from the KAGUYA, and the data was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center on the same day.
©JAXA/NHK |
The west side of the "Oceanus Procellarum" (cut out from the second image shooting) |
This is a still image taken out from the end part of the second moving image taking.
We can observe a crater called "Repsold," whose diameter is 107 km, at the center on the near side of this image. The channel that crosses this crater is called the "Repsold Valley," and its length is about 180 km (equivalent to the distance between Tokyo and Shizuoka on the Tokaido Line in Japan.) The shooting time was the same as the above (2.)
Reference
(1) First shooting
The area around the North Pole shot by the first image taking (encircled by a blue line) and KAGUYA's orbit (red arrow)
©JAXA/NHK |
(2) Second shooting
The west area of the "Oceanus Procellarum" shot by the second image taking (encircled by a blue line) and KAGUYA's orbit (red arrow)
©JAXA/NHK |
Reference sauce : USRA
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LMP/
©JAXA/NHK |
©JAXA/NHK |
The High Definition Television (prior to loading on the KAGUYA) |
1. Don't they do colour HDTV these days?
2. Hmm, something not quite right about the camera - I mean, even my personal cheapo HD camera can adjust for lower light and it costs much less than theis one, So why is there a complete lack of detail coming into the dark area? Surely there should be something on the borderline of the shadow other than image/no image or light/complete darkness and where are the stars? Contrast is shot to hell on the second half of the clip.
Maybe it's just me, but I see alot more of what is missing than what is shown.