Editing Lunar Orbiter program (section)

===Data availability===
The Lunar Orbiter orbital photographs were transmitted to Earth as analog data after onboard scanning of the original film into a series of strips. The data were written to magnetic tape and also to film. The film data were used to create hand-made mosaics of Lunar Orbiter frames.  Each LO exposure resulted in two photographs: medium-resolution frames recorded by the 80-mm focal-length lens and high-resolution frames recorded by the 610-mm focal length lens.  Due to their large size, HR frames were divided into three sections, or sub-frames. Large-format prints ({{convert|16|x|20|in}}) from the mosaics were created and several copies were distributed across the U.S. to NASA image and data libraries known as [https://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/RPIF/ Regional Planetary Information Facilities].  The resulting outstanding views were of generally very high spatial resolution and covered a substantial portion of the lunar surface, but they suffered from a "venetian blind" striping, missing or duplicated data, and frequent saturation effects that hampered their use.  For many years these images have been the basis of much of lunar scientific research.  Because they were obtained at low to moderate Sun angles, the Lunar Orbiter photographic mosaics are particularly useful for studying the morphology of lunar topographic features.

Several atlases and books featuring Lunar Orbiter photographs have been published. Perhaps the most definitive was that of [https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/book/lopam.pdf Bowker and Hughes] (1971); it contained 675 photographic plates with approximately global coverage of the Moon. In part because of high interest in the data and in part because that atlas is out of print, the task was undertaken at the [https://www.lpi.usra.edu/ Lunar and Planetary Institute] to scan the large-format prints of Lunar Orbiter data.<ref>Jeffrey J. Gillis, Paul D. Spudis, Mary Ann Hager, Mary Noel, Debra Rueb, and James Cohen, [https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/LPSC99/pdf/1770.pdf Digitized Lunar Orbiter IV Images:  A Preliminary Step to Recording the Global Set of Lunar Oribter Images in Bowker & Hughes], Lunar and Planetary Science XXX, Abstract #1770(1999)</ref>  These were made available online as the [https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/ Digital Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon].<ref>Jeffrey J. Gillis, Debra Rueb, James Cohen, and Mary Ann Hager, [https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/LPSC2000/pdf/1815.pdf The Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas Digital Archive], Lunar and Planetary Science XXXI, Abstract #1815 (2000)</ref>