Why so many photographs taken for the panoramas?

[Willoughby]

I'm NOT a hoaxer.  I just have a question, and it is based on a hoaxer's argument, so I put it here.

First off, this is a terrible argument for this particular hoaxer to make.  For starters, if the argument is sound, all it does is show that they were inefficient with their panoramic shots. 

The argument is that they could have taken the pans using just 6, 7 or 8 shots, but they actually used a lot more than that.  Usually at least 15, and in most cases, far more than that, and even up to 30 in some cases.

My argument has been because it is easier to stitch together 20 photos into a pan rather than just 8 simply because the more overlap each photograph has, the less each image needs to be distorted in order to be stitched with the adjacent photograph since you are using more of the center of each frame - rather than the edges which suffer from more distortions from the lens and the fact that each photograph is not "parallel" to the last - so the film planes are off.  Things like that.

Then I got to thinking - did they actually stitch these photographs together THEN (if so, how) - or was it not until digital editing tools such as Photoshop emerged that they then took the panoramic photographs and stitched them together?  If it is the latter, did they actually have the foresight to know they would be easier to stitch with more photographs?

[JayUtah]

Because distortion increases as you approach the edge of the frame, accurate stitching becomes more difficult the fewer photos you take and therefore the less you can use just the middles of each photo.

[Willoughby]

Because distortion increases as you approach the edge of the frame, accurate stitching becomes more difficult the fewer photos you take and therefore the less you can use just the middles of each photo.

I don't think you read my entire comment.

[ka9q]

My hypothesis: since the cameras lacked viewfinders, they'd risk missing a piece of the panorama if they didn't take lots of overlapping photos.

[Luke Pemberton]

My hypothesis: since the cameras lacked viewfinders, they'd risk missing a piece of the panorama if they didn't take lots of overlapping photos.

That's a good point.

I've use a tripod to take lots of photos which I can turn into a panorama using software, but still take lots of photos. I think the software finds it easier to image match.

[onebigmonkey]

A lot of the panoramas published in the PSRs and geology reports were pretty much just photos laid on top of each other.

[JayUtah]

I don't think you read my entire comment.

No, not very attentively. I was in a crowded backseat on the way back from Promontory and I mistook what you were asking.  My apologies.

Indeed, stitching pans in that era was pure superimposition with no distortion correction.  For the reasons we have redundantly agreed upon, more frames is better than fewer precisely so you can align the relatively undistorted centers of each image.

[Luke Pemberton]

I don't think you read my entire comment.

No, not very attentively. I was in a crowded backseat on the way back from Promontory and I mistook what you were asking.  My apologies.

Indeed, stitching pans in that era was pure superimposition with no distortion correction.  For the reasons we have redundantly agreed upon, more frames is better than fewer precisely so you can align the relatively undistorted centers of each image.

This just popped up on my FB feed. Have you been working on this Mr Windley?

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/sls-booster-chills-out-ahead-of-hot-ground-test.html

[JayUtah]

Not very directly.  I support a variety of engineering activities at Orbital ATK, including SLS Block I boosters.  (Both Orbital and ATK were customers before the merger.)  Yes, I was there this morning in the vendor VIP viewing area, and it was a good consistent burn with full gimbaling enabled.

[Willoughby]

JayUtah - thanks for answering my question.  My post headline is probably not the most accurate, so that's probably my fault.

[Sus_pilot]

I don't think you read my entire comment.

No, not very attentively. I was in a crowded backseat on the way back from Promontory and I mistook what you were asking.  My apologies.

Indeed, stitching pans in that era was pure superimposition with no distortion correction.  For the reasons we have redundantly agreed upon, more frames is better than fewer precisely so you can align the relatively undistorted centers of each image.

When you wrote you were up at Promontory, I immediately thought "Huh, he must be a closet foamer!"

I been playing trains too many years


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[JayUtah]

When you wrote you were up at Promontory, I immediately thought "Huh, he must be a closet foamer!"

There's no closet about it.  You literally take the same highway to get to the Golden Spike monument as to the Orbital ATK production and test site.  The monument is a turnoff just before you get to the rocket garden.  That's a day trip I do for visitors: the Orbital ATK rocket garden and the Golden Spike monument, where -- in the summer -- they have replica locomotives out on the rails and sometimes give rides.  For those of you outside the United States, this site marks the completion of the transcontinental railroad.

The old town of Promontory is long gone.  Now the name just refers to the general region.  Or, with the article, "the Promotory" refers to the peninsula that extends from the north shore of the lake and bisects the upper half.  The southern portion of the Promontory is private land and accessible only by permission.  The southern tip, Promontory Point, is where the two causeways of the Lucin Cutoff meet.  The Lucin Cutoff bypassed Promontory, so the town dried up.  It's sometimes mistakenly reported that the Golden Spike was driven at Promontory Point.

For long-term visitors, I do this as a day trip from Salt Lake City:  Promontory, the Orbital ATK rocket garden, and a peculiar piece of artwork on the north shore called the Spiral Jetty.  And for rail fans, we do Promontory, the Ogden rail museum, and one or both of Ogden Canyon or Echo Canyon -- two of the historical railroading canyons in Utah.  No closet foamer I; my grandfather was a fireman on the D&RG.

[bknight]

Continued hijack.
My grandfather was an engineer on the UPRR, stationed in Cheyenne Wyo. until his death.
Mainly westward travel from Cheyenne.

[Sus_pilot]

Continued hijack:  I'm probably the only multi-engine flight instructor that, at one point, was a qualified steam engine fireman.

My pre-retirement goal on my day job is a cab ride on 4014 when she comes out of the shop.

For those that are wondering:  "Foamer", like the term "Trekkie", among friends is a self-deprecating way of saying you like trains.  However, if they don't know you, you do not want to be called a foamer by a professional railroader or rail historian.  It's our way describing "train nuts" that berate us for business practices they don't like, such a retiring a certain class of locomotive (akin to people telling NASA to just use the Saturn V blueprints), or do stupid and unsafe things for that "perfect photo", or they're just kind of, well, out there. (Like the guy in St. Louis that had a "My other car is a locomotive" bumper sticker on his truck. No biggie, as a lot of guys in the union have that one, but this guy also had railroad logos plastered all over the vehicle and a set of Nathan AirChimes mounted on the hood.)


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[JayUtah]

Continued hijack...

I think we have critical mass to petition LunarOrbit to split these posts out to a rail forum/topic away from hoax and Apollo stuff.

My pre-retirement goal on my day job is a cab ride on 4014 when she comes out of the shop.

A cab ride on a Big Boy is a laudable goal.  When I visited the Henry Ford museum with my grandfather many years ago I thought he was going to hole up next to the Allegheny and just spend the rest of the day there.  Best I can muster so far is a cab ride on the Baldwin they have running out at the Grand Canyon Railway.  They've converted it to run on used cooking oil, so it has the added benefit of smelling like French fries.