Here is an improved version of the Mariner 7 color image.
Edit: See below

IIRC, one of the Mariner 7 (or was it Mariner 6?) images showed a nice silhouette of Phobos.

Was there a Mars rotation movie made?

(sorry my recollection is so hazy today)

There is a rotation sequence. I am having a real time with it though. The current Mariner 7 results are avalable at http://www.strykfoto.org/mariner69/mariner7.htm

I am also working on Mariner-6 images, but haven't had time to finish any yet.

Here is the Phobos shot.



It is visible as the little blip at the bottom, to the left of Syrtis Major.

Rotation movie
from my site
Mariner 6 & 7 image browser

Nice work!

Here is another, slightly tweaked version of the global color image.

Edit: See below

Tedstryk...

What is the data source for that global color image?

Mariner 7 sent real time digital-only data during late close approach, but it was the highly compressed 4-least-significant-bit (I thought) every-7th-pixel data with the middle 20% of the frame (bandwidth used for spectrometer and other instrument data) missing. I've seen and I think posted a scan of the NASA version of some of that data showing about 1/2 disk with Meridiani Sinus in color (wide angle data), and the 1970 JGR mission report special issue had limb hazes in the images from shortly before the tape-recorded close encounter sequence, but I've never seen or heard of any other surviving or useful data from that sequence.

It covers about two-thirds of the disk. It is an approach sequence through each filter, starting with Mars looking quite small and ending with it more than frame filling. I stacked the entire set to make up for only having every 7th pixel. The right edge of the disk is from narrow-angle every-7th pixel data from one rotation back, processed in a similar way, and colorized based on the rest of the image. The data source is the NSSDC cd-rom containing the images recovered from the original tapes.

Here are four examples of what a few of the best of the raw (well, kind of raw - I cut out small dropouts) images looked like.

Here is a higher resolution color image generated by the closest images. I left these out of the other set because it looked awkward having part of the disk a whole lot clearer than the rest.

I tried combining the data set. There is a small improvement, but this is the best I could get from the dataset.

Edit: See below

Ok.. that clarifies things a lot! Great job, considering you're using data the spacecraft more or less wasn't even supposed to be able to return and which wasn't supposed to be useful <more or less>

... and considering that we're talking about data from a spacecraft that only 5'ish days before had a ***MAJOR*** inflight emergency after it's battery shorted out, overheated and RUPTURED, venting into the spacecraft and causing attitude control loss and a small propulsive delta-V!

It really is hard to believe. This wide angle approach set was a very late addition. I have broken it back into its components here, with the more distant set, the somewhat closer version I made, as well as the closest set in the color sequence. Incidentally, I planned to attempt to reprocess this set to make an image for an April Fools joke (I was going to colorize a narrow-angle far encounter view, colorize it based on the colors in this set, and alter the surface features a bit (namely, make Syrtis Major less pointy to conform with its contemporary appearance), and claim I had gotten an ESA exclusive. However, this dataset proved tougher than I ever imagined. In case anyone is wondering why there isn't much rotation evident, the closest shot was taken only 50 minutes after the most distant one. You can, however, notice the angle has shifted considerably by the last shot if you look at the polar cap.

Here is the original RGB treatment, from a vintage print.

Don

Click to view attachment

I have always been fond of that image. It has always frustrated me to see the red-channel weighted way it has been reproduced. Color images of its type are quite common today, but was the first one of its kind outside of the earth-moon system.

I nominate tedstryk renderings of the Mariner 69 data for the most spectacular data-revival award of the year. <something like that>

Were any of the very very late far encounter images <close enough to show limb hazes etc?> color, of were those all narrow angle?

There are definitely near encounter images that show limb hazes. I will have to go back to check to see if the late far encounter shots showing limb hazes are there. I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Flagstaff, Arizona. When I get back to Tennessee, I will check.

An essential reference for Mariner 69 is the papers in the Journal of Geophysical Results special issue from about 1970 or very early 71. That's where I saw those, in the imaging teams primary mission results analysis paper.

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I would really like to see this happen, but I would like it to be under the auspices of a group like the planetary society. I think people would be more willing to contribute to it than an individual's website.

I would like to recall about history of JPL's Image Processing Laboratory.

JPL's Image Processing Laboratory History

Click to view attachment
Mariner 7 image 7N19 processed by JPL/IPL, predecessor of MIPS

Click to view attachment
Mariner 7 image 7N21 processed by JPL/IPL, predecessor of MIPS

Your first image is inverted. It should look like this:

Click to view attachment

If I recall correctly from the PDS files, they have that one saved in inverted form.