Mariner 9 star photography.

Abstract

Mariner 9 achieved successful photography of the stars, the purpose of the experiment being to measure camera parameters associated with point source photometry, and to examine the feasibility of using stars as invariant calibration sources and a reference for optical navigation. The Mariner 9 camera-B photography demonstrated photometric response consistency over a limited sample of data to better than 15%. Camera performance verified the ability to model vidicon response characteristics as well as demonstrated an imaging capability sufficient to permit the use of stars for photometric calibration.