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Here's an article by the scientists who created the camera that took this picture, introducing it and describing its design. https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2

by schoen 3y ago

Here's an article by the scientists who created the camera that took this picture, introducing it and describing its design. https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/200751/1/The%20Wide-Field%20Imager%20for%20Solar%20Probe%20Plus%20%28WISPR%29.pdf https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/200751/1/The%20Wide-Fi... It's very much not an off-the-shelf camera; it seems to have involved years of custom engineering work. This article doesn't seem to address the specific question of "why is this camera monochrome?" but you can see that it wasn't trivial to make an instrument that would work well in this difficult environment. So it's definitely not like "and let's throw a commercial digital camera on there too just for fun!". It's a legitimate question why some kind of color camera wasn't considered worth including, but lots of space missions have sensors that are something other than a simulacrum of human vision. That's why so many astronomical images end up getting published in false color. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_color https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_color In almost all of those cases, the justification for the false color seems to be some form of "true color wouldn't have been possible or appropriate for the scientific purposes of this imagery".

verisimi 3y ago
Thank you for acknowledging this is a legitimate question. I've no issue with all sorts of cameras and scientific instruments being placed on a space craft. I don't expect to get access to all the data that is sent back - though - as it is from the public purse - I think it should be made available. My point is that the only interaction us great unwashed have with these missions is with the imagery that is provided.. How difficult would it be to have a colour camera?!?! I have a crap mobile and it has 3 cameras! And one on the front! When colour cameras have been available to everyone for so long, its simply inconceivable that NASA can never provide decent imagery! Its 2024 ffs, surely we can have colour by now! No? If not now, when?
- deleted 3y ago
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- mulmen 3y ago
  > How difficult would it be to have a colour camera?!?! As has been exhaustively explained to you already “more difficult than it is worth”. At this point you are willfully ignorant on this topic. > I have a crap mobile and it has 3 cameras! And I own a spatula. Both devices are equally capable of taking color photos in this environment.
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    [flagged]
- schoen 3y ago
  > I don't expect to get access to all the data that is sent back - though - as it is from the public purse - I think it should be made available. You can indeed get the actual data from this instrument! https://wispr.nrl.navy.mil/wisprdata https://wispr.nrl.navy.mil/wisprdata > How difficult would it be to have a colour camera?!?! I have a crap mobile and it has 3 cameras! And one on the front! When colour cameras have been available to everyone for so long, its simply inconceivable that NASA can never provide decent imagery! They do have missions that have great color cameras, like on Mars! The James Webb Space Telescope also produces great color imagery, but it's normally presented in false color because its camera is biased toward the infrared. https://webb.nasa.gov/ https://webb.nasa.gov/ Here's one of their popular justifications for that: https://webbtelescope.org/webb-science/the-observatory/infrared-astronomy https://webbtelescope.org/webb-science/the-observatory/infra... In that diagram you see that the Webb sees more colors than the human eye, but most of them are ones that our eyes don't see. They have various arguments that the colors that it does see are more interesting and useful for seeing very faraway stuff.

by schoen 3y ago

verisimi 3y ago

Thank you for acknowledging this is a legitimate question. I've no issue with all sorts of cameras and scientific instruments being placed on a space craft. I don't expect to get access to all the data that is sent back - though - as it is from the public purse - I think it should be made available. My point is that the only interaction us great unwashed have with these missions is with the imagery that is provided.. How difficult would it be to have a colour camera?!?! I have a crap mobile and it has 3 cameras! And one on the front! When colour cameras have been available to everyone for so long, its simply inconceivable that NASA can never provide decent imagery! Its 2024 ffs, surely we can have colour by now! No? If not now, when?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mulmen 3y ago
> How difficult would it be to have a colour camera?!?! As has been exhaustively explained to you already “more difficult than it is worth”. At this point you are willfully ignorant on this topic. > I have a crap mobile and it has 3 cameras! And I own a spatula. Both devices are equally capable of taking color photos in this environment.
- Dylan16807 3y ago
  [flagged]
schoen 3y ago
> I don't expect to get access to all the data that is sent back - though - as it is from the public purse - I think it should be made available. You can indeed get the actual data from this instrument! https://wispr.nrl.navy.mil/wisprdata https://wispr.nrl.navy.mil/wisprdata > How difficult would it be to have a colour camera?!?! I have a crap mobile and it has 3 cameras! And one on the front! When colour cameras have been available to everyone for so long, its simply inconceivable that NASA can never provide decent imagery! They do have missions that have great color cameras, like on Mars! The James Webb Space Telescope also produces great color imagery, but it's normally presented in false color because its camera is biased toward the infrared. https://webb.nasa.gov/ https://webb.nasa.gov/ Here's one of their popular justifications for that: https://webbtelescope.org/webb-science/the-observatory/infrared-astronomy https://webbtelescope.org/webb-science/the-observatory/infra... In that diagram you see that the Webb sees more colors than the human eye, but most of them are ones that our eyes don't see. They have various arguments that the colors that it does see are more interesting and useful for seeing very faraway stuff.