OK, so I have been given a late assignment to create a "Year in Pictures" feature for our site looking back at 2005, and I'm looking for some "homework help" . I did one of these last year (sadly it is not available on the new site, I will try to repost it ASAP) and included pictures from Wild-2, tons from Spirit and Opportunity and Cassini, Genesis embedded in the desert, that sort of thing. The idea is to showcase pictures that are beautiful, scientifically meaningful, or historically important, or all of the above. I thought I'd see if any of you might have any opinions about what I should include. I've already got a space reserved for at least one "amateur" pic, likely the Av Week cover. I can't include everything that's suggested here (my editor has final say) but this community collectively has a much broader viewpoint on the last year than just lil' old me and I'm sure you'll come up with good stuff I never would have thought of...

--Emily

What I'd include....

The Hubble Mars shot of the Dust Storm
Plutos two new moons
MRO Launch and/or Lunar Calib image
Anything and Everything from Cassini - particularly some of the KODAKMMT's
DI images, the impactor images are fairly poor quality, but a sequence of flyby images of the impact would be good
Aqua/Terra images of Hurricanes / Flooding and Hemel Hempstead Oil Depot / LA Bush Fires
Aqua / Terra images of the Annular Eclipse
Images of the Tile Gap Filler removal EVA
Something from MEX, umm, the ancient Martian 'Glaciers'
Heck - I could think of dozens

Doug

I would nominate this shot of Hyperion

Dramatic, good balance of art and science, etc. Makes nice desktop wallpaper - which is why these missions are funded, right?

And I second most of Doug's

I think Spirit's Summit Pan would be a no-brainer. Honestly, although it's a shame, I think that may be the only result from the rovers that much of the public has even been vaguely aware of this year. It does truly represent a significant moment in spaceflight, IMHO.

Ahh - the Summit Pan + Deck pan reprojected in the Polar Format as seen in this place would be the best way to present it I think - and yes, it should be in there

Doug

I second the Hyperion image.

Two others I would make sure to include are the Enceladus plumes, and at least one shot from Hayabusa showing those large boulders on Itokawa just hanging there at non-intuitive angles.

I'd revise that to the *color* image of Hyperion. Ansel Adams and the now-rare Hollywood B&W film withstanding, color is what the public wants to see, since the midpoint of Wizard of Oz.

The thing that aggravates me about good desktop images is that the normal use of my computer obscures everything but the edges. Especially devastating to whole-object pictures with black boundaries!

Well, color notwithstanding, I think you are right about the composition - lays a little nicer in the frame:

I would include one of the shots that shows the shadow of the Hayabusa probe on the Itokawa Asteroid. Noteworthy and thought provoking.



Phillip

Great stuff so far...keep it coming!

I'm adding a Huygens view of the channels on Titan to the list. I can't decide though whether to use one of Rene Pascal's beautiful mosaics or one of the first-released raw frames. The latter is not nearly as pretty of course but it is very significant because everyone who saw it, expert or not, could instantly interpret what those channels meant...

--Emily

o The pre and post soil-slump 'movement' .gif images from Opportunity
o 'The Promised Land'
o Falcon-1 on the pad
o Any dust devil movies

Bob Shaw

Don't forget the Iapetus in Saturnshine images, which were taken on January 1, 2005.

Michael

• The Huygens photo showing the riverbed.
  
• Image showing that Opportunity freed herself from Purgatory Dune.

The Huygens surface photo is by far the most thought-provoking image of this year. As if there weren't many already.

The latest batch of Cassini images released just a moment ago includes a couple of painfully beautiful images (see latest Photojournal images; full resolution images are not yet available for some reason).

Awesome! A whole s*itload of new releases just as I was starting to wonder what happened to our Xmas presents!

Also a nice writeup on the CICLOPS homepage.

Hey, Ted, remember this one?

See Volcanopele's new thread.

Emily, I'd like to suggest including the artist's representations of the proposed CEV/LSAM combination that, if it gets funded, will take humans back tot he Moon within the next dozen or so years.

They're available at the nasa.gov website somewhere, I'm sure.

-the other Doug

This list of mine is heavily biased given the fact that I'm (even) more interested in Cassini-Huygens than e.g. MER:

* At least two images from Huygens, one during descent showing 'lakebeds', 'channels' etc. and then a post-landing image, preferably in color (the post-landing image is the image of the year IMO)

* The Enceladus plumes

* Hyperion hi-res global mosaic showing its weird appearance

* Images of Iapetus showing the equatorial ridge from the flyby a year ago - assuming these didn't appear as part of a collection of 2004 images. Also maybe images of Iapetus in Saturnshine

* The famous global image of Dione with Saturn and the ring shadows on its globe in the background.

* One of the images of Saturn's rings showing the opposition highlight (maybe this one: http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=1187 )

* Maybe this one of Rhea behind Dione: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=51392

* Some of the beautiful Cassini images like this one: http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=1112 (there are many more)

* An image of Itokawa showing Haybusa's shadow on the asteroid

* A hi-res global image of Itokawa

* A DI image showing the impact - the one where the bright plume is visible with its shadow also visible on the comet's surface

* Possibly a global image from Messenger's Earth flyby

There have been so many wonderful images this year; how do you pick even a few? I'll go along with Bjorn's and "all of the above".

I think the most evocative class of images are those which show a Saturnian satellite against a background of Saturn or Rings instead of black space. This composition has a three-dimensional quality that none other have.

--Bill

One of my picks of the year was a recent Cassini release that is simple and subtle in its beauty --

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07654

Emily,

All the above, especially mars (eg summit pan), saturns moons and temple 1. Its been a planetary bonanza of a year unlike any other. your choice is tough

The Enceledus Plume: both for beauty and far reaching science implications

Titan's channels and lake for a mind blowing new vista

some new ones I dont see above:

Cosmic Mountains of Creation
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/relea...c2005-14c.shtml

Star Forming Region NGC 1333
http://ipac.jpl.nasa.gov/media_images/ssc2005-24a_medium.jpg

Cassopia A
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/relea...c2005-14c.shtml
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/casa/


ken

MGS/MOC keeps cranking out images; I guess one of our favorites from 2005 is the cPROTO mosaic of Chasma Boreale:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/0...eale/index.html

Wow, thanks for the suggestion, Mike. That is a gorgeous picture. It is always hard to select images from the "workhorses" like MGS and Odyssey -- like you say they just crank and crank until I begin to take them for granted. Do you have any other particular favorites for the year?

--Emily

MOC images Mars Odyssey:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/19/

Outcrops in East Candor:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/30/

MOC's 200,000th image:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/06/03/

What's a good Opportunity image for 2005? So far all I've got is several from Spirit.

--Emily

The iron meteorite ?
Heatshield pieces ?

My favorite Oppy image this year is the "Lookback" image from Sol 659. From the first Mogollon outcrop, looking back at the North Erebus dunefield across the plain to Endurance. This image is so evocative of the journey, and is courtesy of Nico and Dilo.

--Bill

Purgatory Dune?

AAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHH NOOOOOOOOOO NOT THAT ONE!!!!!

In my opinion "The most significant image" would be Spirits Everest Panorama, but this one I have waited 20 years to see...
http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=483
Click to view attachment

Click to view attachmentI found this one from Oppy (I think) intriguing enough to save...notice the striped pattern on the exposed whitish surface.

The image title is 2M178563853EFFAE03P2956M2M1-BR

From my archive..

MGS

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/06/22/
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/11/21/
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/12/02/
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/28/
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/09/26/
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/09/05/
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/03/27/

From Mars Odyssey - I can not found website, so zip to download:

http://udalosti.astronomy.cz/sdileni/forum/mo.zip
and Arsia Mons detailed images and Mars Odyssey Art images as well..

IMHO is very hard set one image of the year, it is hard to set ten or maybe 100 images.. ;-)

My Year in Pictures feature is finally posted, just in the nick of time:
http://planetary.org/news/2005/1231_The_Ye...tures_2005.html

Thanks to everybody for your suggestions!

--Emily

Emily,

you have made a fantastic, wide ranging and beautiful selection of "The Year in Pictures".

Thank you for including the international team of mars enthusiasts and Aviation Week and thank you for a generous write-up.

ken