File talk:PIA16239 High-Resolution Self-Portrait by Curiosity Rover Arm Camera.jpg

At first glance I would say that this picture is a fake, because normally in a "selfie" you should see the "arm" that holds the camera in the picture (or at least a part of it). That's what I'm missing here. It looks as if someone/something else took the picture or with a tripod and timer - which is both very unlikely (unless you believe in "little green men" ;-) ).

Maybe the person who uploaded this picture can tell how it was made and why you don't see the "arm".

(This picture could serve as good fodder for conspiracy theories.)

Eddie2 (talk) 06:53, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

I too would like to see more details of how this fascinating image was constructed, but does not the description given with the file give a clue as to how it was done? "Due to its location on the end of the robotic arm, only MAHLI (among the rover's 17 cameras) [my italics] is able to image some parts of the craft, including the port-side wheels." Not exactly a "normal selfie"! --Mabzilla (talk) 15:21, 17 May 2014 (UTC)


 * The whole selfie was constructed using MAHLI; it took a number of pictures from different angles because it doesn't have a fish-eye lens that could see the whole rover at once. Those were then stitched together in the same way as the Autostitch or Microsoft Photosynth app on your phone. The arm wasn't visible in most of the shots because of the narrow view angle of the camera. Elsewhere it was edited out, because for every image where it was visible there was always another image from a similar angle but with the arm in a different position. You can see the base of the arm just above and to the left of the closest wheel in the picture; it's the grey sideways traffic cone attached to the underside of a dark grey circle. Look at the full-resolution version and you can see blurring where the stitching process has tried to combine images where the base of the arm has moved.


 * You can also see the shadow of the MAHLI camera on the hub of the closest wheel. :)138.38.24.108 (talk) 13:44, 27 June 2014 (UTC)