[geocentrism] Re: Odd happenings on (Mars?).

Well, the red color of the blue tab is easily explained.
The original caption and pictures can be found at:
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080103a.html

Towards the end of the caption to the first picture (the one "analyzed"
in the link you posted), they write about the technical details of the image
and say that:
 "This view combines separate images taken through Pancam filters
   centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and
   432 nanometers. It is presented in a *false-color* stretch to bring out
   subtle color differences in the scene." [emphasis by me].

* The 753 nm filter is in the infrared - we cannot see it. They have used
 it as a proxy for (visible) red in this false-color image.
* The blue colour tab on the sundial turns out to be very reflective
 in the infrared apart from being very reflective in blue. See, e.g.,
 http://www.atsnn.com/marscolors.html
* As the infrared filter is used as a proxy for red in these particular
 pictures, the blue tab will turn up red.

The second image is taken with the same filters, but adjusted in a way to
"produce an approximately true-color panorama." :
  "This view combines separate images taken through Pancam filters centered
   on wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers to
   produce an approximately true-color panorama."

The pancams have 20-25nm wide filters, centred at
   430, 440, 480, 530, 600, 670, 750, 800, 860, 880, 900, 930 and 980nm,
of which 670, 530 and 440 correspond to red, green and blue. The filters
are obviously chosen according to the science objective of the particular image. To also be able to use the pictures for the public, they often have to use proxies for one or two of the visible colours. They state it when they do so, and there 
is nothing dubious about it.
The purported soot from lightning strikes, looks a lot more like windblown fines (dust, in layman terms) than it looks like soot. If you look at the complete picture, you will see that the purported soot streaks are mostly aligned in the same direction, from left to right, and a little down. In the approximate true-colour image, you also see that the streaks are not black, but grey, that they have a distinct 3D structure and 
that they seem to pile up where there are obstructions to the wind.
It looks to me like the dark grey fines, is heavier (larger particles) than the red fines. Conspiracy theorists most often have to work hard to exclude the evidence against their theories. The web-site you linked to, only showed the small parts of the picture that could support their theories, and ignored the rest. Including the fact that it was 
a false-colour image!
  The rest of their claims are even weaker. I am not impressed by them...
But at least they do give us a reference to the original picture.
       Regner


PETER CHARLTON wrote:

http://www.rense.com/general80/sunmr.htm

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