#hand lens

To capture an image of the rover itself, the rover extends its arm and rotates it so that Mahli faces back at the rover. It then moves the arm in a proscribed set of motions, creating a panorama that can be stitched together once the images are transmitted back to Earth. As the rover was doing one of these “selfies” earlier this year, one of the other cameras, the black and white Navcam, took this series of photos of the position of the arm as it wandered its way through that photograph sequence. The selfie that was produced is shown at the end. Notice how the large arm with various analytical tools and the drill does not appear in the selfie? This video is why – the arm itself is behind MAHLI, shifting position to move the camera. -JBB Video credit: https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/24834/navcam-movie-of-how-curiosity-takes-a-selfie/