POV-Ray renderings of Huygens descending to Titan

Rendered Views of Titan

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The Mosaic of Titan's surface, created from the raw images of the Huygens mission, is the basis for these images rendered with POV-Ray. The viewpoint for the renderings does not always represent a point on Huygens real trajectory.
The atmosphere of Titan was modeled according to the properties that were already known prior to the Huygens mission. I put some effort into creating a realistic atmosphere, but I don't claim these views to be absolutely correct.

Huygens at an altitude of 110 km above the surface of Titan
The Huygens Probe just jettisoned its Main-parachute and is now hanging under the smaller Stabiliser-parachute. This Stabiliser-parachute will carry Huygens for the next two hours all the way down to the surface.

110 km above the surface of Titan
The haze of Titans atmosphere preferently scatters blue and ultraviolet light. This is the reason why the outer atmosphere of Titan appears blue in some Cassini images. In reality, the effect of a blue outer atmosphere on Titan may be less prominent than on this rendered image.
This was the altitude were the main parachute was jettisoned and first surface structures came into view for Huygen's cameras.

Published in Le Figaro Magazine July 23, 2005

Huygens hanging 90 km above the surface of Titan
The true color of Titans sky at this altitude is expected to be slighly less vivid than in this rendering, but should nevertheless come close to it.The transparency of the atmosphere would also be slightly lower to the naked eye.

90 km above the surface of Titan
The blue color of the sky slowly vanishes with decreasing distance to the surface and is replaced by a brownish tint. Huygens is still above a layer of complex organic condensate haze, that prevents a clear view down to the surface.

Huygens at an altitude of 90 km
90km and still nearly two hours of descent are separating Huygens from the surface of Titan.

70 km above the surface of Titan
At an altitude of 70 km above the surface, Huygens is inside the layer of complex organic condensate haze. Below that layer, the view becomes clearer.

Published in Le Figaro Magazine July 23, 2005

At an altitude of 40 km
This view represents Adiri as seen from an altitude of 40km, but with the sun in the west.

30 km above the surface of Titan
Huygens at an altitude of 30 km above the surface of Titan.

25 km above the surface of Titan
The altitude, where Huygens view of the surface became distinctly clearer, was surprisingly low with respect to the atmosphere model.
About 10% of the sunlight that is present at the outer atmosphere of Titan reaches the surface at the end.

Huygens at an altitude of 20 km
A closeup view of Huygens at an altitude of 20 km.

View of the "Shoreline" rendered for Le Figaro Magazine
This view of the prominent "Shorline" on Titan from an Altitude of 25km was rendered especially for Le Figaro Magazine.
All these renderings are based on the Large Surface Coverage Mosaic.
A critical comparison of this view with the original Panorama stitched from side looking imager frames, is a good test for their correctness.

Published in Le Figaro Magazine July 23, 2005

Fisheye view of Titan
This view shows the descend area of Titan, as if it was imaged with a 190° fisheye camera lens from approximately 20km above the landing site.

Published in Le Figaro Magazine July 23, 2005