English: This is the first of two images taken about one month before the planned orbit insertion of Mars Observer. For these images, the spacecraft was specifically maneuvered and slewed so that the planet passed through the MOC image plane. This image was taken at 03:52:41 UT on 27 July 1993, and was compressed by about a factor of two using the MOC lossless predictive compressor; no processing other than contrast enhancement has been done, and some electronic noise is visible in the image.

This image was also released to the press; this image is in original orientation as received, while the press release version was rotated to put north up. The terminator is roughly vertical here because the spacecraft was being slewed about an axis in the plane of the ecliptic.

--Mike Caplinger, Malin Space Science Systems