I just thought I would post this link. It has some really cool stuff...shows the true capability of the Viking imaging system. Too bad they couldn't move.

http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/vikingl/vl_images.html

COOL........haven't seen that before

My first RGB pic from viking:

cunning trick for the missing lines - take a copy of the missing line form another channel and increase/decrease brightness/levels to match its neigbours.

Not sure on the procedure for getting the right colour balance with Viking though - not looked at it very carefully

Looking back on the Viking 1 image with the benefit of a year of Spirit & Oppy behind us, would it be safe to say that V1 landed in a "hollow"?

I'm not sure if 3d interpolation was done that much with Viking imagery. With the VERY long baseline of sterep - should get some really accurate results
Doug

Thanks for the link, Ted, and that's a great colour picture, Sunspot. How do you determine what the filter colour is from the image code? For example, the ones shown below.

http://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/VikL/vikingl2.pl

11A131.BB3
11A143.BB4
11A254.BB4

Thanks,
Aldo.

The pictures I used had "RED, GRN, BLU" in the file name. They were the only ones with obvious colour information.

A few pointers for using the browser. Remember that the "view next 10 images option is on the top, and you have to hit submit after selecting it to go farther down the list. Secondly, it will, on default, after you select a camera, set you on views 30-50 degrees wide. I usually choose the list all images option instead. This will give you much broader results. BB is broadband, if I am not mistaken. Viking generally only took high resolution images in low resolution mode, although there are a few exceptions. It took painstakingly slow scans to get a decent scan at high resolution using the color filters. I am not sure what the numbers signify. Many of the rare RGB high resolution scans seem blurry. Also, ignore the apparent clouds in the sky. While Viking took images in an 8-bit format, they were converted to 6-bit (64 shades of gray) for transmisson. This usually worked ok due to the limited range of contrast in the scene. However, it has been stated numerous times that the apparent clouds in the sky are side effects of this and not due to real martian clouds.

This is one of my favorite Viking views. It shows a crater on the horizon. There is a hint of a view inside the crater to the far left side of it. Reminds me of Oppy's view of Endurance from Eagle. Too bad Viking 1 couldn't move. This image is from the merging of low-resolution color data and high resolution black-and-white data. The illumination is somewhat different, so a lot of tweaking was needed to make the color look somewhat right.

Nice work, Ted. I remember the Viking colour pictures when they were first transmitted on the TV. They looked so cool and exotic. I probably have close to 75 of the original 8 x 10 photos NASA mailed out to the general public. But your and Sunspot's versions are so much more clearer. It's good to be able to revisit the Viking landing sites like this and I hope you post some more reworked images.

Cheers,
Aldo.