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This panorama was taken by Scott Parazynski on 7 May 2009 at IMG Camp II on Mt. Everest in Nepal at an elevation of 6,600 meters (21,500 feet). A GigaPan Epic and Canon PowerShot G9 were used. This image is 330 degree panorama. The SD card in use was of insufficient size to capture a full 360 degrees.
Begining at far left you can observe a small portion of the west face of Everest, with a backdrop of clouds just behind Lhotse (the dark summit just inset from the border; this is the 4th highest mountain in the world). Just below Lhotse is the steep Lhotse Face, the standard approach to the summit of Everest; The photograph was taken early in the season, so Camp III (between 24,000 and 24,500 feet above sea level) has not yet been established. If you zoom in tightly, however, you can see remnants of the 2008 post-monsoon climbing route: a diagonal cut coarsing up towards the Yellow Band (a limestone band of rock at roughly 25,000 feet) is still present. Moving to the right you can see some of the sub-peaks of Lhotse, followed by the intimidating Nupstse, with hanging glaciers and heavily crevassed features. The low point in the skyline is the location of the Western Cwm, the valley than connects Camp II to Camp I, the Khumbu Icefall and Everest Base Camp. On the far right of the frame is the very steep and hulking west face of Everest. Camp II is in the foreground, dominated by the cook and dining tents of the International Mountain Guides and Himex mountaineering teams. This picture was taken as part of the coverage of astronaut Scott Parazynski's climb (Everest Updates online at http://onorbit.com/everest ) in coordination with Keith Cowing and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education ( http://www.challenger.org ) |
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The Gokyo Valley is perhaps the most spectacular of the valleys in the Everest region and while the trail to Everest Base Camp gets close to the world's highest mountain. The view from Gokyo Peak offers the best panoramic view in the region.
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This panorama was taken by Keith Cowing on 1 May 2009 at the IMG camp at Everest Base Camp, Nepal. A GigaPan Epic and Canon PowerShot G9 were used.
Beginning at far left you can see a portion of the Khumbu Icefall and the lower West Shoulder of Everest, the source of many severe avalanches this past season (one of which was fatal). The base of Nuptse is just to the right of the icefall. Roughly 120 degrees from the left margin is the Khumbu valley and the approach all climbers take to reach Everest Base Camp (at 17,500 feet above sea level). The image then swings around the cirque to show the base of Pumori, Lintgren and Cholastse, before arriving back at the base of Everest and the icefall. In the foreground you can see the International Mountain Guides base camp, as well as photographer Keith Cowing of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education (minus his right hand due to a processing artifact) This picture was taken as part of the coverage of astronaut Scott Parazynski's climb (Everest Updates online at http://onorbit.com/everest ) in coordination with Keith Cowing and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education ( http://www.challenger.org ) |
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This image was taken at Mount Everest's Camp IV at approximately 10 am local time, May 19, 2009. Due to concerns at the time about available storage space on the camera's memory card, the resolution of the individual photos is less than is possible. This was done to insure that the entire vista was recorded.
The saddle between Mount Everest (29.035 feet) and Lhotse (27.940 feet, the fourth highest mountain in the world) is also known as the South Col, and is located at 26,000 feet above sea level on the border between Nepal and Tibet. Looking across the windswept and rocky South Col on the left side of the frame is the Everest summit block, rising over 3,000 feet from camp. The climbing route heads up the steep snow and ice slope known as the Triangular Face, and gains the right skyline at a slight bump on the southeast ridge. The route then moves up towards the South Summit - the true summit is hidden just behind the highest point in the frame. The Challenger Center Everest team believes that this is the highest GigaPan image ever taken on the surface of the Earth. This picture was taken as part of the coverage of astronaut Scott Parazynski's climb (Everest Updates online at http://onorbit.com/everest ) in coordination with Keith Cowing and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education ( http://www.challenger.org ) |
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View of Lhoste glacier, Lhoste Nup glacier and Ama Dablam glacier on the way to Chukhung Ri (5500m) |
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If a human with perfect vision donned a spacesuit and stepped onto the martian surface, the view would be as clear as this sweeping panorama taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. That's because the rover's panoramic camera has the equivalent of 20-20 vision. Earthlings can take a virtual tour of the scenery by zooming in on their computer screens many times to get a closer look at, say, a rock outcrop or a sand drift, without losing any detail. This level of clarity is unequaled in the history of Mars exploration.
It took Spirit three days, sols 620 to 622 (Oct. 1 to Oct. 3, 2005), to acquire all the images combined into this mosaic, called the "Everest Panorama," looking outward in every direction from the true summit of "Husband Hill." During that period, the sky changed in color and brightness due to atmospheric dust variations, as shown in contrasting sections of this mosaic. Haze occasionally obscured the view of the hills on the distant rim of Gusev Crater 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. As dust devils swooped across the horizon in the upper right portion of the panorama, the robotic explorer changed the filters on the camera from red to green to blue, making the dust devils appear red, green, and blue. In reality, the dust devils are similar in color to the reddish-brown soils of Mars. No attempt was made to "smooth" the sky in this mosaic, as has been done in other panoramic-camera mosaics to simulate the view one would get by taking in the landscape all at once. The result is a sweeping vista that allows viewers to observe weather changes on Mars. The summit of Husband Hill is a broad plateau of rock outcrops and windblown drifts about 100 meters (300 feet) higher than the surrounding plains of Gusev Crater. In the distance, near the center of the mosaic, is the "South Basin," the destination for the downhill travel Spirit began after exploring the summit region. This panorama spans 360 degrees and consists of images obtained during 81 individual pointings of the panoramic camera. Four filters were used at each pointing. Images through three of the filters, for wavelengths of 750 nanometers, 530 nanometers and 430 nanometers, were combined for this approximately true-color rendering. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell |
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The trek to Everest Base Camp on the Nepal side is one of the most popular trekking routes in the Himalaya and is done by thousands of trekkers each year. |