Pioneer Venus Orbiter

Pioneer Venus didn't cary a camera in a conventional sense, but a Cloud Photopolarimeter (OCPP). This device works by measuring the amount of light coming from a single point of space. Therefore, to produce a picture, that single point must move and scan the planet step by step and line by line.

Here's a collection of the best Pioneer Venus OCCP images I could find. Thumbnails are linked to full size versions. The original images (scanned) come from www.nasaimages.org. As far as I know, these images were obtained using the Near UV (365nm) filter. I processed the images to remove defects from the original prints, and to present them with a common scale and brightness range.

 

Cloud Photopolarimeter (OCPP) Images

Image   Date Number
A78-9176 1978-12-06 1
A78-9177 1978-12-08 6
A78-9178 1978-12-09 7
A78-9179 1978-12-10 10
A78-9052   14
A78-9070 1979-01-11 78
A78-9072   94
A78-9093   102
A78-9094   117
A78-9095   118
A78-9096   133
A78-9116 1979-02-01 156
A78-9089   190
A78-9090   194
A78-9091   199
A78-9092   204
A78-9065 1979-10-19 370
A78-9066 1980-03-31 463
A78-9138 1980-05-03 589
A78-9167 1980-05-22 664
A78-9168 1980-05-29 693
A78-9169 1980-05-29 694
A78-9461 1988-11-29 7540

 

 

Mission and camera system data:

Mission Summary:

 Launch
1978-05-20
 Venus
1979-11-22
 Last Contact
1992-10-08

Camera :

Image size
2000x2500 (max)
Sensor
Photopolarimeter

 

Filters
 270 nm
365 nm
550 nm
935 nm