Why is Curiosity’s self-portrait image tilted instead of rotated level?
Asked 9/9/2012
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I saw a Curiosity rover self-portrait that appears noticeably tilted. Why would NASA publish it at that angle instead of rotating it so the horizon or rover looks level?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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That's a picture of the remote sensing mast, which houses the main cameras. Since there's no one else there to be snapping the portrait, this had to be taken with one of the other cameras. In fact, it was taken from the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera on the robotic arm, and that's probably just the position it was in for the self-portrait, either because that's where there's a shot with no obstructions, or because it wasn't considered worth making extra moves.
If you watch this video, you can get some idea of the contortions the arm can make. The main point of the MAHLI camera is taking photos of the ground; the landscape scenery shots (and doubly-so the self portrait) is just bonus.
I'm guessing that the tilt is a combination of getting a clear shot plus reducing unnecessary movements. However, it's interesting to note that the same 30° tilt is there in the first color image from the surface, and NASA notes that this is the tilt in the stowed position. They're just in the process of putting the arm through its paces and maybe they hadn't gotten to the point of tilting the camera in a different way.
In any case, the image is presented rotated, to make the horizon align and to make down be down — in other words, they did "rotate it and show it in the correct angle". They could show the horizon tipped and the frame square, but why?
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
13y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The image is tilted because it was not taken by Curiosity’s main mast cameras. It was taken by the MAHLI camera on the rover’s robotic arm while the arm was positioned for a self-portrait. That camera and arm are mainly designed for close-up imaging, so the angle used may simply have been the best position that gave a clear, unobstructed view without extra arm movements.
NASA may also leave it tilted to preserve the full frame. If you rotate a strongly tilted rectangular image to make it look level, you either have to crop away the corners—sometimes losing a large part of the photo—or add blank borders. Publishing the original orientation keeps all the captured image data visible.
So the tilt is likely a practical result of how the photo was taken, and leaving it unrotated avoids heavy cropping.
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