From: Mac Tonnies <macbot@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 21:05:45 -0700 (PDT)
Fwd Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 07:42:29 -0400
Subject: Re: Cydonian Imperative: 4-23-01 - Oddity in 'City

The Cydonian Imperative
4-23-01

Enduring Oddity in the "City Square"
by Mac Tonnies

For illustrated and linked version, please see

http://www.geocities.com/macbot/cydonia.html

When new images of the "City" in Cydonia became available in
1998, researchers noted a seeming discrepancy in the area dubbed
the "City Square." One of the four mounds comprising the "City
Square" seemed to have changed position since it was last
photographed in 1976. The .gif animation below shows the
"rotated" feature quite plainly.

[image]

Note "rotated" appearance of mound in lower left of top half of
image.

Anomalists are left with three distinct options:

1.) The seemingly "rotated" feature is a trick of camera angle
and lighting.

2.) The feature was indeed physically moved on the Martian
surface by unknown means between 1976 and 1998.

3.) One of the images of the City Square has been digitally
manipulated to give the impression of a "rotated" surface
feature.

Chris Joseph, whose photoclinometric images of the curious
Martian "tubes" appear in earlier installments, writes the
following regarding his attempt to reconcile the 1976 and 1998
images:

[image]

"One is a comparison between the viking image, showing the
points of reference on the grid, the other is the resized and
rotated MGS [see image above]. You'll notice that as close as I
get the reference points to each other, the pyramid, the crater
above it (top right) and the large mound (bottom right) are way
out of place. The image was proportionally resized for a best
fit, and then the height and width were tweaked into place
seperately. The animated gif (for some reason, Flash dithers the
images) is a cutout of the city square overlay.

I would think that if the images were taken at different
angles/aspect ratios, the tweaking should have lined everything
up. Maybe I'm wrong."

SPSR's Lan Fleming notes that the "rotated" mound appears to be
elevated in the Viking image, in which case its seeming
dislocation may be due to the different lighting conditions
present when the Mars Global Surveyor took its picture in 1998.

-end-