Daniel Machacek

@danielmachacek

Space nerd, Image processor, Lazy photographer, Humanist

194 Folgt1.605 Follower149 Posts

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Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· 1d

Rain curtain from a small storm at sunset.

Color image of sun behind rain curtain during sunset.

Color image of sun behind rain curtain during sunset. Wider view with storm cloud visible above it.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· 1d

Similarly as @cmbennett01.bsky.social , I used Cartes du Ciel to localize Pluto. It's great piece of (free!) software where one can download stars up to magnitude 21 (full Gaia catalog - 48 GB!), newest positions for comets, etc. I have basic Gaia up to 15 mag and UCAC4 which goes to 16 mag).

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· 11d

Despite radiation and Trump's efforts to kill Juno, our only envoy around Jupiter, this plucky spacecraft still works and is taking images. Here are three examples taken by SRU camera during orbits 77 and 78, showing dark side of Jupiter and its auroras. Credit: NASA/Caltech-JPL/SwRI/D. Machacek.

Black and white image of Jovian Aurora.
This image was taken by SRU camera onboard Juno spacecraft (NASA) on October 17, 2025.

Black and white image of dark side of Jupiter.
This image was taken by SRU camera onboard Juno spacecraft (NASA) on October 17, 2025.

Black and white image of Jovian Aurora.
This image was taken by SRU camera onboard Juno spacecraft (NASA) on November 19, 2025.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· 15d

This isn't so surprising! When I was young, in the countries behind the Iron Curtain, Indian actor Kabir Bedi was very popular and was considered one of the sexiest men. Zohran's father is from India. Another very popular actor was Omar Sharif. www.easterneye.biz/media-librar...

Photo of Indian actor Kabir Bedi from Sandokan

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Jul 1

I'm currently working on map(s) of Titan. Part of this project is new basemap of Titan combining radar and infrared data. I still have a lot of work to do but the radar part is almost done. Here are examples of current state in Mollweide projection and area around Bolsena Lacus at ~full resolution.

Black-and-white map of Titan in Mollweide projection combining practically all usable high resolution radar and near infrared data obtained by Radar instrument and ISS camera onboard Cassini spacecraft.

Small section of high resolution black-and-white radar/NIR map of Titan in stereographic projection showing area around Bolsena Lacus with part of Jingpo Lacus visible on the right part of image.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Jun 19

Flyby of Donaldjohanson was more "problematic" than flyby of Dinkinesh. I assume that imaging was limited to protect the cameras from the Sun. Sensitive color camera MVIC with wider FOV only took pictures up to a distance 3000 km. L'lorri worked up to ~1000 km. This is true size of best MVIC images:

Contrast enhanced black and white image of asteroid Donaldjohanson from the MVIC camera onboard Lucy spacecraft.
(Sharp transition in brightness in the right part of image is caused by different response of neighboring CCD sensors in camera and incompleteness of calibration process.)

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· May 17

Crescent Mars from the Psyche spacecraft. Color composite from images taken on May 15, 2026 at 10:05 UTC through Infrared 1, Green and Violet filters.

Crescent Mars from Psyche spacecraft.
Color image showing thin crescent with multiple white clouds and thin atmosphere.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· May 7

This is example how images from JunoCam look now (respectively last published image from orbit 77).

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Apr 29

Aurora visible on the night side of Jupiter from the Juno's SRU camera during orbit 76. Bright spot in the right part of the image is probably footprint caused by Europa's movement through Jovian magnetic field. Date: 2025/09/14. Time: 23:52:33 (UTC). Credit: NASA/Caltech-JPL/SwRI/D. Machacek.

Image of bright aurora glowing on the night side of Jupiter with stars visible behind horizon with possible footprint caused by Europa's movement through Jovian magnetic field in the right part of image.
Image was taken by SRU camera onboard Juno spacecraft during orbit 76.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Mar 29

Stramberk Castle on a full moon night.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Mar 16

A week later, on August 14, 2025 at 18:16 UTC, the Hope probe photographed a double cyclone at the same location.

Color image of Mars with a double cyclone near the north polar ice cap at the top of image. Also visible in the center of the image is the Valles Marineris canyon, on the left is the Ascraeus Mons volcano, and at the very bottom is the frost-covered Argyre Planitia.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Mar 16

Seasonally recurrent annular cyclone on Mars in processed images from newly released data from the EXI camera system onboard the Hope probe (EMM - Emirates Mars Mission). The images were taken on August 7, 2025 between ~12:30 and 18:10 UTC. Credit: Emirates Mars Mission (EMM)/EXI/D. Machacek.

Two color images of the crescent of Mars with a cyclone near the north polar ice cap at the top of the image. The images were taken on August 7, 2025 at 12:30 and 14:20 UTC.

Two color images of Mars with a cyclone near the north polar ice cap at the top of the image. Also visible in the center of the images are the three large volcanoes of Tharsis Montes and Olympus Mons volcano. The images were taken on August 7, 2025 at 16:18 and 18:10 UTC.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Feb 20

I'm not geologist so I can't comment much from that perspective but my favorite is entire Aphrodite Terra. There are multiple areas in it where are ~8 kilometer differences in topography on very short distance. For example drop between Atahensik Corona and Dali Chasma.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Feb 18

🧵 4/5 Next major difference are denoised topo data used in shadow relief map and elevation color map. This is most visible in Aphrodite Terra. Here is comparison between shadow relief maps of it based on original topography, denoised version and "ground truth" based on stereo imaging (Herrick 2012)

Comparison between shadow relief maps of Aphrodite Terra based on original topography from Magellan's altimeter (top image), denoised version (middle image) and "ground truth" based on stereo imaging analysis by Robert R. Herrick (bottom image).
(Herrick, R. R., D. L. Stahlke, and V. L. Sharpton, Fine-scale Venusian
topography from Magellan stereo data, EOS, Transaction, American Geophysical Union, 93, No.
12, 125-126, 2012)

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Feb 18

🧵 3/5 This map also solved my major omission in the previous version, where I didn't know that Magellan also took images of the Venusian poles with its radar. Those are not in the FMAP mosaics by USGS, which I used, but they are well hidden in MIDR mosaics in the volume MG_0127. New map solved this

Two images show the difference between the new (the left image) and old (the right image) versions of the map around the South Pole. The new version adds coverage by using Magellan's SAR MIDR mosaics from PDS archive volume MG_0127.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Feb 18

🧵 2/5 It's based on older version which I published more than 13 years ago - www.flickr.com/photos/10958.... Major difference is entirely new base map with higher resolution and clarity.

Comparison between new (the left image) and old topographic map of Venus (the right image).

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Jan 20

Few images of tonight's aurora from the Czech Republic. I've missed most of the brightest part of the show and only captured the end of it (first two images) but fainter aurora was visible for several hours with nice burst of activity around 0:40-0:50 UTC (the last image).

Red and green Aurora Borealis above distant forest and snowy field through fisheye lens.

Red and green Aurora Borealis above distant forest and snowy field.

Subtle red and green Aurora Borealis above a lonely tree and snowy field with the Cassiopeia constellation on the left.

Red and green Aurora Borealis above a lonely tree and snowy field.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Jan 14

21 years ago, humanity landed on Saturn's moon Titan.

Surface of Titan from Huygens probe.
Image shows terrain similar to dry riverbed covered by pebbles.

Credit: ESA / NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / Daniel Macháček.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Dec 20

Martian moon Phobos from Mars Express' HRSC camera. A color composite of three images taken through ND, GRN, and BL filters. Largest crater with bright splotches is Stickney. North is up. Date: September 19, 2025. Credit: ESA\DLR\FU Berlin\D. Machacek.

Color image of Martian moon Phobos with large crater Stickney near center of the image.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Dec 8

Asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson from distance 1060 ㎞. Reconstructed global view at 4 m/pix from multiple deconvolved images from L'LORRI🎥 + lowres color (Orange, Green, Violet filters as RGB) data from MVIC🎥 onboard Lucy spacecraft. Date: April 20, 2025. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/JHU APL/D. Machacek

Reconstructed global view of skittle-shaped asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson from Lucy spacecraft.
Image has color but Donaldjohanson is essentially grey object and color images were taken only at very low resolution.
Asteroid Donaldjohanson has two cratered lobes, one larger and one smaller, connected by a smoother neck.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Nov 20

As far as the weather forecast goes, it looks like I only had one hour to try to get a pictures of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas. And it worked! Even the tail is faintly visible. It looks like typical comet even with small equipment - Olympus E-M1II with 75-300 mm lens and Minitrack LX2 tracker.

Long exposure image composite of interstellat comet 3I/Atlas.
The comet is visible like green spot with a faint tail in the center of the image with star trails around it.
Total exposure around 50 minutes. The source images for the composite image were taken on November 19, 2025.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Oct 21

Bright auroras visible on the night side of Jupiter from the Juno's SRU camera during orbits 69 and 70. Left image: Date: 2025/01/28. Time: 23:08:17 (UTC). Right image: Date: 2025/03/02. Time: 16:04:45 (UTC). Credit: NASA/Caltech-JPL/SwRI/D. Machacek.

Black-and-white image of bright aurora glowing on the night side of Jupiter with stars visible behind horizon.
Image taken by SRU camera onboard Juno spacecraft during orbit 69.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Oct 1

Major part of this map is based on monochrome and filtered maps published by New Horizons team (links in the description in the map), but I have expanded coverage by using additional data not used in these maps. These are data for areas hidden in twilight and edge areas photographed by LORRI imager.

Comparison between reprojected maps of Pluto in Mollweide oblique projection.
Original monochrome map published by the New Horizon team on top and new color map with extended coverage below.

Detailed comparison between reprojected maps of Pluto in Mollweide oblique projection.
On the left is the original monochrome map published by the New Horizon team, and on the right is the new color map with extended coverage.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Oct 1

My new color photographic map of Pluto is now online. Full resolution image version (~322Mpix) is available on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/10958... PDF version (~73MB) is available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1EW-x... 🧵 1/5

Small preview of color photographic map of Pluto in Mollweide oblique projection. It contains one large global map with four small hemispheric maps and basic description. Full version of this map is available for download in links in the main post.
Credit: NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI/Marc W. Buie/ESA/Daniel Machacek.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Sep 23

Iridescent clouds at NATO Days 2025 show together with the British Red Arrows aerobatic display team, German Eurofighter Typhoon and Slovak F-16.

Nine Hawk jets of British aerobatic display team Red Arrows with colorful iridescent clouds.

German Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet with colorful iridescent clouds.

Slovak F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet with colorful iridescent clouds.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Sep 14

A few selected images of Mars processed from a new batch of data from the EXI camera aboard the Hope probe. The dates and times of the images and some details are in the ALT text.

Global color image of Mars from Hope Probe with north polar ice cap visible on the top of the image, Valles Marineris on the left and lots of clouds over Meridiani Planum on the right.
Date: December 21, 2024. 14:46 UTC.
Credit: Emirates Mars Mission (EMM)/EXI/D. Machacek.

Global color image of Mars from Hope Probe with north polar ice cap visible on the top of the image, Olympus Mons near the center, bright cloud over Alba Mons on the right near terminator and fan shaped clouds around Arsia Mons in the lower center.
Date: December 5, 2024. 13:07 UTC.
Credit: Emirates Mars Mission (EMM)/EXI/D. Machacek.

Global color image of Mars from Hope Probe with north polar ice cap visible on the top of the image, Gale crater (landing place of Curiosity rover) near the center and interesting cloud between Elysium Mons and Albor Tholus near terminator.
Date: November 28, 2024. 15:20 UTC.
Credit: Emirates Mars Mission (EMM)/EXI/D. Machacek.

Color image of crescent Mars from Hope Probe with south polar ice cap visible at the bottom of the image, the giant Tharsis volcanoes near the center, Noctis Labyrinthus in the center right near terminator and Olympus Mons volcano at the upper left of the image.
Date: February 6, 2025. 04:04 UTC.
Credit: Emirates Mars Mission (EMM)/EXI/D. Machacek.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Aug 27

A teaser for the Pluto map I'm working on, originally scheduled to be released on the 10th anniversary of the New Horizons flyby of Pluto. These are minimaps which supplement the main map and contain less information - the main map is much larger and contains all the official and unofficial names.

Map of Pluto in approximately natural colors in Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. It shows anti-Charon hemisphere with large bright area, Sputnik Planitia (heart of Pluto), in the center.

Map of Pluto in approximately natural colors in Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. It shows north hemisphere with Lowell Regio in the center.

Map of Pluto in approximately natural colors in Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. It shows the southern hemisphere with blurred areas around the south pole due to the lack of detailed information about that region.

Map of Pluto in approximately natural colors in Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. It shows the sub-Charon hemisphere, area imaged by the New Horizons spacecraft from a great distance and therefore with relatively low resolution.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Aug 25

Something happened in space a few minutes ago. It looks like illuminated fuel from a rocket's second stage. I took these photos from Silesia in the Czech Republic.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Jul 15

Ten years (and one day) ago New Horizons 🛰 made first and probably for looong time the last flyby of Pluto-Charon system. This is best (half)global image of Charon obtained by MVIC camera. It combines hi-res B/W image with color images at lower resolution. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/D. Macháček.

Color image of Pluto's moon Charon from MVIC camera onboard New Horizons spacecraft. Image is showing half of the Charon's disc at resolution 650 meters per pixel.

Daniel Machacek@danielmachacek· Jul 11

High altitude clouds over the Martian canyon Valles Marineris. This is a small crop from the HQ516 image sequence taken by the HRSC camera aboard ESA's Mars Express spacecraft on January 3, 2025. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)/D. Machacek.