~50 minute drive on sol 2297, unsure of the direction, but this partial pan from the 6 available L-NavCam frames may help narrow down the location. Roughly assembled in MS ICE, no additional image processing.
A long-distance RMI mosaic from sol 2298, roughly stitched together in MS ICE, no additional processing.
We're starting to get a stunning view of the south edge of VRR:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/proj/msl/redops/ods/surface/sol/02298/opgs/edr/ncam/NLA_601513401EDR_F0731692NCAM00257M_.JPG
Sol 2297 ChemCam. Some little rocks got displaced by the laser? Or the result of drilling?
Just the laser. As if you can say 'just the laser' about firing a laser on Mars.
Phil
Great works, keep them coming!
as fredk noted above, the south end of VRR is coming into view and it seems to be smoothing out a bit, made me think of the view into Endeavor just before going down into Perseverance..
fascinating looking at all the http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02298/CR0_601500017PRC_F0731482CCAM05298L1.htmlthese sols..
here's an attempted stereo of sol2298 stitch anaglyph and crosseye
Reminiscent of parts of the interior of Endurance and Victoria Craters at Meridiani
Long-baseline stereo views from sols 2298 and 2299. Anaglyph:
Sol 2299 Mastcam Right
DeBayered, repaired, extended sky...
https://flic.kr/p/2d2b1xx
Full width...
https://flic.kr/p/SgRxAL
Hmm, I'd like to see some RMI mosaics of those erosional scarps. Looks like there's a couple good erosional exposures of the contacts there, might be helpful for doing some remote stratigraphy.
Sol 2299 mastcam Right with CG Curiosity for context, scaled using HiRISE reference...
Zoom...
https://flic.kr/p/2d2tF3p
Wide...
https://flic.kr/p/2d2tFSa
Here is a link to the https://we.tl/t-zZPNWl9SYy MR files
Available for 1 week from today.
Sol 2299 Rmastcam panorama:
https://flic.kr/p/23PCTcD
Thanks Sean, again, for debayering these images.
Sol 2299 Lmastcam post-drive view:
https://flic.kr/p/23PCJYp
Sol 2300 Lmastcam post-drive:
https://flic.kr/p/2dk2zGN
Some lovely images, thanks all
2300 L-MastCam Weekend Workspace (MS ICE)
Soaking up the view after the drive on sol 2302
Back from Hospital and surgery and now stitching again.
The Navcam L view on Sol 2302.
Jan van Driel
2302ML (drive direction?) Looking fairly wheel friendly, but maybe not too many contact science opportunities
I'm glad you are back, Jan, and I hope you are doing well.
Here is your sol 2302 panorama in circular form.
Paul - I think that drive direction mosaic was taken assuming the rover would be at the top of the ridge looking out across the wider landscape. Next time, maybe!
Phil
Ashwin confirmed to me today that they are "definitely on the clays," so I've created a new thread here.
A newly posted http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2019/pdf/2826.pdf. They plan to do a Z-shaped traverse -- first drive northeast along the base of the ridge to look at stratigraphy and reach the lowest-elevation point where there is a strong clay signal from orbit. Then they will turn southwest and climb across the clay-bearing unit vertically, until they get to the Greenheugh Pediment (the plateau made by the inverted channel coming off Mount Sharp). Then they'll turn southeast, poking along the base of the pediment and looking into alcoves.
Here are a couple of maps from Fox et al.
Sol 2304 Lmastcam post-drive:
https://flic.kr/p/QKqp4x
According to Ashwin, sol 2302 was the day they drove in to the clay-bearing unit.
Sol 2302 panorama from mastcam left & right, debayered & blended with extended sky...
211 Megapixel
https://flic.kr/p/2dq4gcC
Curi context...
https://flic.kr/p/So2QPY
Detail...
https://flic.kr/p/2ewanTe
https://we.tl/t-h2swHKgImd
https://we.tl/t-VoIpDaOxLM
Links are active for 7 days
Those are lovely Sean
Partial NavCam pan after the short drive on sol 2306, roughly stitched in MS ICE
Nice stitches and renderings <http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=8460&view=findpost&p=243652 and http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=8460&view=findpost&p=243661>. (if youre like me and want to download them, and find that Flickr's "flic.kr" abbreviated URL scheme resolves to an overlay that doesn't have download menu widgets or even allow right-click download, you can simply append "/sizes" to the resultant URL to force to the 'all sizes' download page).
the scale of Curi in the distance serves to remind me how my eye tends to overestimate the scale of landscape features.
Here are some quick stereo views from select http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02306/NLA_602216832EDR_F0732502NCAM00267M_.html navcam sets
Here are Jan's last two panoramas in circular form, showing progress relative to the small ridge. We just drove down the other side of the ridge and turned left, so I can feel another map coming on.
Phil
Sol 2304:
Jan's 2309 panorama in circular form. We are well beyond this now and I need to get onto the map.
Phil
MAHLIs of the rock with the LIBS sweep http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02309/2309MH0001930000803914R00_DXXX.html share an overlap that works for stereo (crosseye/anaglyph):
A rather nice looking outcrop, images from sol 2311 by the R-MastCam before the long drive, should look much nicer in colour when debayered, but even in its Bayer format it looked good enough to share here
Here is the debayered image:
Sol 2313 L-MastCam post-drive panorama, easy driving conditions ahead
Drive on sol 2316. Looks like an opportunity for some contact science, or maybe a another touch and go
Roughly assembled in MAS ICE using some of the post drive L-NavCams
Thanks! Paul's partial panorama let me find the location for the map, and here is Jan's panorama from sol 2313 in circular form, showing tracks.
Phil
Very nice, Jan. Here is a circular projection of your panorama.
Phil
Enhanced movie of a dust devil drifting by on Sol 2310. Covers about 2 minutes, with 12 seconds between each frame.
I seem to recall an announcement that MRO would be assigned solely to InSight for the initial part of its mission, with other orbiters providing the DSN relay for Curiosity. The most recent image in the MSL JPL image server was acquired on sol 2320, 4 sols ago. Has anyone heard of any communication issues? Also are there any status pages for the Mars orbiters that would provide this sort of detail TIA
Sol 2320: Left NavCam post drive partial pan, roughly assembled in MS-ICE. Poorly stitched, but hopefully it will assist in narrowing down the new location
Thanks, Jan. I made a circular version of this panorama to show where we are, after taking the liberty of patching the image to show the tracks behind us where they were partly hidden by the rear antenna.
Phil
The lack of images after Curiosity's drive on sol 2320 is explained in this release by NASA/JPL which documents a computer reset.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/after-a-reset-curiosity-is-operating-normally
Science activities resume in Gale crater, with ten images from sol 2333 returned by Curiosity, here is a rather nice target imaged with ChemCam's RMI
L-MastCam sol 2320 Workspace, assembled in MS ICE (unprocessed)
L-MastCam mosaic: Sol 2320 NNE - ENE and ~200 meters from a possible drill site. Stitched in MS ICE, no additional processing.
2338 NLA after a drive of ~24.4m ESE (http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/sol/02338.html) roughly assembled in MS ICE no additional processing, may help identify the location
The Mastcam L view on Sol 2312.
126 images Debayered and stitched.
Thanks Sean, Debayering took me now 2-3 hours instead of 2-3 days.
Jan van Driel
Update : https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7339
This sounds at least superficially similar to the events that caused Opportunity to shut down her flash memory. Does Curiosity have the same option if these problems continue?
http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/sol/02347.html is indicating a drive on sol 2347 to Site 75/0000. However the front HazCams appear to indicate the rover remained at the same location.
Edit: Just realised this sequence was likely commanded as they switched to the other computer, so not an aborted drive.
My version of 'Fife' using the focus merged versions that were downlinked later:
Stitched and rotated in MS ICE, otherwise unprocessed.
Hard to be sure, but there appears (to my ageing eyes) that there could be some cross bedding in https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02339/mcam/2339MR0124290031001193C00_DXXX.jpg bayer encoded R-MastCam from sol 2339
Looks like the MAHLI imaged a DRT site on sol https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/02349/mhli/2349MH0001220010804400C00_DXXX.jpg, I think it may be the site brushed back on 2339 before the reset. The MAHLI shows was looks like surface scratches from using the DRT(center of the brushed area). If these are scratches, it could bode well for easier drilling / sampling in this area.
Cross-bedding is a possibility there. I remember seeing some crossbeds of similar dip in the rocks coming off VRR so I would not be surprised if they are present in much of the clay unit.
Looking at a couple of posters last night, looks like the Clay-Bearing Unit might be named as "Glen Torridon". Not sure if it's still considered a subunit of the Murray formation, or if it's being split out into a new formation.
There seems to be a little activity in a planned DD search using the NavCam early on sol 2353, the brief activity can just be observed in the unprocessed frames, just to the left of center, maybe a gust wind raised some surface dust. The proper processing could reveal more detail
There are also several darker frames in the very large set of bayer encoded L-MastCam sequence on sol 2350, which was the sol they imaged the Deimos transit. Clearly they can not be the sky darkening because of the eclipse so maybe they captured a vortex or vortex's passing close to the rover? The entire sequence has yet to the downlinked, but there are over 100 already down. Sadly I can't create a GIF with so many images, but here are 10 frames assembled into a simple GIF from the beginning of the sequence, where you can observe one of the events. Note I set the blink rate at a quarter of a second
Drive direction (unprocessed) L-MastCam, sol 2352: Taking us further North into the clay deposits of Glen Torridon
Here are two circular projections of Jan's latest panoramas. I will use them to update the map when I can get to it, maybe not for a few days.
Phil
Sol 2347:
Long distance RMI of an outcrop located North(?) of the rover on sol 2354
Playing with a few images on a Sunday afternoon.
Sol 2353 Mastcam L view.
Jan van Driel
and the complete Mastcam L view on Sol 2353.
Jan van Driel
early easter egg hunting? finding scattered nice and clear (quartz?) grains and apparent concretions in the MAHLIs from http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/sol/02356.html and http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02357/2357MH0001630000804600R00_DXXX.html
Looks like this is the L-MastCam drive direction section of what will be a wider mosaic from sol 2357 (MS-ICE / slightly darkened)
The https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rover-curiosity-mission-updates/?mu=sols-2359-2360-hopping-from-outcrop-to-outcrop talked about speculation that the lone float rock (left of center) could be a meteorite or possibly or a remnant of a higher, eroded unit, but the next drive will take the rover to the subtle ridges (visible just to the left of the float rock) and image the float rock from there as well as the small butte in the middle of this mosaic.
Long distance RMI mosaic of another exposure of the Vera Rubin Ridge, this time looking Northwest of the rover during sol 2357.
I used the 4 enhanced data product frames for this mosaic, a fifth image was not available in that format when I assembled this in MS-ICE, no additional processing except for adding the annotations.
Posted this here to keep the signal to noise ratio down on the map thread. I've annotated my guesstimate of where the rover is after its drive on sol 2357 onto a crop of the JPL location map for sol 2354, but that's not the main reason for this post. For fun I'm looking at potential drill / sample sites in the clay unit...
I've circled three possible sites: A, B and C: My favourite at the moment is A, with C running a close second, C looks to have more potential, but it's a little off the published path.
We had a transient darkening of the sky just after sunset on 2358. All I can think of is a Phobos transit, with centreline just to our north. Very cool. Here's an animation:
And not long ago we had that at InSight as well.
Phil
From Michelle Minitti's mission update 23 March "Finally, Navcam will attempt to capture Phobos, one of Mars's moons, transiting across the Sun in the Martian sky".
It seems their attempt was successful
What my version of it using the raw JPGs looks like. And a whole thread of discussion about it right here : https://twitter.com/doug_ellison/status/1110748122831978496
Kudos to FredK for figuring it out before I'd even seen the images
Nice. Here's yet another version, subtracting the smoothed average of all the frames from each smoothed frame, and adding a multiple of that to each frame:
That site seems to be accurate to within about 15seconds of what I'm seeing on the ground.
First frame took longer to execute as the mast had to slew from stowed up to the pointing, and then iterate the auto-exposure a couple of times.
Second frame was at 18:40:14, and the last at 18:43:13 - time between frames was around 7.5 seconds ( we didn't command a pause - that's just as quick as you can take images with the NavCams with some options turned off to speed things up)
Sunset was 18:40:26, but 'local' sunset behind the back of the Vera Rubin Ridge was probably a little earlier than that.
Jan's panorama from sol 2357 in circular form. I can't emphasize enough how useful it is to have these panoramas posted like this to help me find locations for my maps. Thanks, Jan!
Phil
Special for Phil,
the Navcam L view on Sol 2359.
Jan van Driel
Thanks! Good to know.
NavCam caught a wind gust on Sol 2357, here is a processed video:
Thanks, Jan - here is a circular version which i used to get the new location for the map.
Phil
Added 7 images to complete the 360 Navcam L view on Sol 2361.
Jan van Driel
One of the ChemCam targets on sol 2362 in this animated RMI before and after GIF, I added margins to roughly align the target on the frames
If that is a ceramic, it is very nicely glazed. A little bird or a calligraphic inscription would suit the occasion.
Seriously though, I guess gravity alone accounts for the way the dark chips all migrated to the lower left of the target area?
Excuse me but I'm not seeing where as the laser help in the melting of this here glass.
https://twitter.com/_TheSeaning/status/1112793238790983688
A very short drive, straight ahead to a nice looking outcrop during sol 2365:
Here are circular views of Jan's recent panoramas to help show our progress through the clay-rich Glen Torridon.
sol 2359:
Sol 2365 L-MastCam: Arm workspace, assembled in MS ICE, else unprocessed.
I'm guessing that this could be "Lumphanan", which according the the https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rover-curiosity-mission-updates/?mu=sols-2365-2366-edging-closer-and-closer-to-a-new-drill-target may be a fragment of an iron meteorite.
Apologies for the terribly de-bayered R-MastCam from sol 2365
Sol 2365 Mastcam Left, 9 frame DeBayered composite, extended sky
https://flic.kr/p/ThkBwY
https://we.tl/t-LJkGqbqBCV is a link to DeBayered files of Mastcams Left & Right, available for 7 days
And another sample hole drilled into Mars Sol 2370 at Aberlady
Looks like full depth achieved in just over an hour. It seems that drilling has become something of a routine event. All credit to the engineering team.
A quick animated gif showing the recent drilling activity.
Sol 2373 CheMin port before and after sample drop? L-MastCam GIF
Midnight Planets seems to be stuck on sol 2374.
Anyway, from MSL's raw images pages, ChemCam caught this view of what looks like a meteorite on sol 2376:
Hand Lens from sol 2377 which I presume is the remaining powdered rock sample from 'Aberlady' that was dumped after they decided not to place any of this sample inside SAM.
Here is a 360 panorama timelapse of Curiosity’s mission up to Sol 2374.
Raw and unpolished, hope you enjoy!
https://vimeo.com/330789196 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP-TE1eyibQ
Youtube allows zooming (on desktop) and works great on PS4 with VR headset!
Sol 2379 - RMI Telephoto mosaic of the Sulfate Unit to the Southeast of the Rover roughly assembled in MS ICE, no additional processing except for the annotation.
Great thanks for posting this, like the ones you did for MER, its an absolute blast!
having no VR gear myself, in YouTube you hit 'f' to go to fullscreen and mousewheel up to zoom all the way out for the best view, then, since the orientation remains static you can just point your viewport at Mt sharp and enjoy the whole traverse over to VRR as it slowly comes better into view, then back up a few years, swing the viewport around 180 for a rear view of the crater rim, enjoy watching the buttes recede all the while seeing how the Tau goes from good to bad to ugly by the 6/17/2018 frame.. im experiencing the mission in a whole new way, really cool!
it would be really interesting to hear what sort of software and processes you labor through in order to create these.
Sol 2379 MAHLI: simple z-stack of 4 images of the LIBS sites 'Aberlady'.
Both group 1 & 2 white light LEDs were on, the UV LEDs were off.
(assembled in Picolay)
We also took a complete Navcam deck pan to gap fill below the M34 imagery on the following sol at the same time of day
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=2376&camera=NAV_RIGHT_
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=2376&camera=NAV_LEFT_
djellison,
I have seen that and tried to stitch the color and black-white images but my software ( Autopano Pro ) does not see it as 1 image and
does not stitch them together.
The same for earlier images.
Here is the navcam L view on Sol 2381.
Reminiscent of Spirit's El Dorado ripple field.
Looking good at Kilmarie!
The amount and shape of the drill cuttings (tailings) could bode well for a sample in the sleeve, fingers crossed they can get this one inside SAM
Nice to see two sample holes in one NavCam frame
Kilmarie is on the right side
Simple 'blink GIF' of the R-MastCam frames of 'Kilmarie' on sols 2381 and 2384, roughly aligned by adding margins.
Note the movement of sand and pebbles and the colour differences in the cuttings (tailings)
Those cuttings height appears to be a little smaller than I estimated from the NavCam frames, hope that it's deep enough to have got enough powdered rock into the drill sleeve for analysis.
thanks, its impressive seeing how much a mess the drilling operations create displacing rocks and sand seemingly far from the intrusion site (check the pebbles in the distance!). it inspired me to create a somewhat sloppy animated gif crossseye/anaglyph using the stereo m100/m34 sets from those SOLs, unfortunately much gets unavoidably cropped out using the Steophotomaker functions
Looking northeast at an upper section of the Vera Rubin Ridge
Sol 2389 R-MastCam, 3-frame mosaic, that I processed, including a patched sky, assembled in MS ICE after coarse de-bayering with GIMP
These frames are part of a set that should make a much larger mosaic, but I'll leave that to those who can properly process these compressed bayer images.
We don't appear to have a mission update for this sol, so not sure if this particular section of ridge was named.
The Mastcam R view on Sol 2389.
97 Images Debayered and stitched.
Jan van Driel
A long distance RMI mosaic of the Sulfate unit.
10 frames from Sol 2396 roughly assembled in MS ICE.
Sol 2397 L-MastCam of an inspection of one of the open inlet ports for SAM. The internal screen appears to be clean, but since the change to Feed Extended Sample Transfer (FEST) and delivering powdered rock directly from the drill sleeve into SAM and CheMin there is no direct screening prior to it being dispensed from the drill sleeve.
I was able to find the screen size (1 mm) for the CheMin inlet port, but I can't find the screen size for SAM, it appears coarser than the screen in CheMin (I guesstimate it to be closer to 2 mm).
Does anyone know of a document that has the actual mesh size or the internal diameter of the inlet funnel TIA
A fine and a coarse grid covering the two solid inlets would make sense Paul given that the CHIMRA was designed to produce two samples sieved to less than 1 mm and less than 150 micron for input to the solid inlets. A 1 mm grid for the 150 micron sample and a (2mm) grid for the 1 mm sample would ensure that the samples would pass through the grids.
There is damage evident to the left hand side of the grid in your image. Could this be a function of the tapping delivery workaround for delivering drill samples from the drill tube?
A strange hole in this sol 2399 Rmastcam image (see arrow). Sand displacement due to a laser blast?
Thanks by the way for nicely debayering that. Yes it would seem so, looks as if the strafe pattern ended in a clean socket as if a hole, but thats probably shadow tricks.
Here are the sol2399 ChemCam views of it http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02399/CR0_610468870EDR_F0751398CCAM02397M_.html and http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02399/CR0_610469957PRC_F0751398CCAM02397L1.html.
it looks like they took a shot at it earlier on sol2394 as well, here are those http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02394/CR0_610022218PRC_F0751398CCAM03393L1.html and http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02394/CR0_610023152PRC_F0751398CCAM03393L1.html chemcam views.
If you do a row of shots from bottom to top - the little blast from each set of shots in turn scatters some grains back over the previous hole - leaving a little trench. The last hole doesn't get covered over.
Lots of cirrus-y looking clouds drifting over on the evening of Sol 2400:
A new selfie is coming, here is a mosaic of the first 41 pictures. Nice to see the two drillholes near the wheels!
Gotta love them selfies
Meanwhile another lovely set of clouds to the NNE on sol 2405
Edit: I corrected the sequence order and added timestamps, may be a tad slow to load due to file size
It is a really nice sequence. You can see the clouds getting blurred towards the end (and the hot pixels increase) as presumably the exposures lengthened. (The latest frames chronologically are at the start of your animation, Paul.)
I’ll double check the exposure times when I get in to work tomorrow.....the last one we did a few sols ago they were 12 seconds or so. This time the images had a ‘wait’ between frames - but these could be several tens of seconds or longer.
They’re incredible. I’m sure Mark L and I will be conspiring to do more of these in the coming months.....I have ideas
Here is my take on the Sol 2405 cloud movie. For this (and the previous movie I posted a few days ago) I applied a high-pass filter to enhance the clouds relative to the background sky. For this movie I also attempted to fix the exposure variation due to how overexposure in some frames effected the histogram stretch that NASA applies to the raw images.
The http://www.greuti.ch/msl/clock_and_filenames.htm says the sun was around 10 degrees below the horizon during this sequence. With the visual appearance that suggests the possibility of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_clouds, although the public jpeg stretching makes it hard to know how bright the brightest clouds really are. I don't recall a clear observation of noctilucent clouds from the surface of Mars before...
Given how many high altitude haze decks I've seen working with HRSC data, I am not at all surprised at the suggestion of noctilucent clouds. Kind of a wonder that they haven't shown up in previous sunset photos.
The exposure times will end up in the PDS delivery in a few months....but spoiler alert - for the 8 frames..
9.7, 9.8, 11.0, 14.6, 23.0, 35.6, 49.9, 68.8 seconds.
Here's another movie of noctilucent clouds, this time on Sol 2407. Movie covers appx. 14 minutes. Not as spectacular as the previous two movies, but still pretty nice. Lots of fine detail and streamers, which IMO look similar to terrestrial noctilucent clouds. Some of the clouds at upper right are starting to dim a little bit, so that'll help work out their altitude.
This is Jan's new panorama in circular form. Comparison with the last one shows we moved slightly to the northwest to approach the dark drifts. I will update the map tomorrow, it's been a busy day in the Solar System.
Phil
Curiosity's dance at Aberlady-Kilmarie:
I am a touch depth challenged. Is Curiosity now at the same level as the Pettegrove Point member?
Another query that has been niggling at me is whether the extremely tough, non-drillable sections of the Jura member were higher than the drillable section. If so then could this imply that they are the eroded remnants of a lithologically distinct member that overlay the Jura.
Jan's sol 2408 panorama in circular form - the drifts got scuffed.
Phil
Someone needs to stitch and animate the cloud movie on 2410
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=2410&camera=NAV_RIGHT_
It's a 3x1 mosaic, shot left to right, repeated three times without pauses.
Here's my take on the Sol 2410 movie, assembled in Photoshop.
My interpretation of the spectacular cirrus clouds seen on Sol 2410. Enjoy
Justin kindly allowed me to tween his version of the mosaic.
4 seconds seemed to offer the best balance of movement between the 3 frames...
Click through for the animation...
https://flic.kr/p/2ez2bJH
I will update this with better quality source files soon.
Here is my interpretation, with a color version based on typical sky hue during sunset (clouds colors may not be accurate though).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasappere/47104359754/sizes/k/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasappere/47104359754/sizes/k/
Very nice, Jan. Here is a circular version. A bit further ahead, just round the corner, is a place where there might be a contact between the rocks of the ridge and the clay-rich plains below. I expect it will be masked by debris, but it's the closest we are likely to get to a contact.
Phil
Here's my attempt at colorizing the noctilucent cloud mosaic on Sol 2410.
Actually, and based on MPF cloud images taken before sunrise, the color view should look like this.
Enjoy :
These have to be some of the most stunning Martian clouds observed to date.
I dissembled jccwrt's original stitch animation and repurposed the first/last frames as a crosseye/anaglyph revealing a fairly weak though still interesting stereo effect (i dont have anaglyph glasses to test it out but posted one anyways since it might be enjoyable to those who do have glasses and the crosseye method can be eyestrain inducive it seems few bother to try it out)
EDIT: attached a very scaled down parellel version rightmost fwiw.
These are truly magnificent cloudscapes, and the 3D version does appear to show features at different levels. In particular there are sheets of cirrocumulus that look lower than the streaks of cirrus proper, most evident at the upper left of the images. There is always the risk that wind shear makes time an unreliable proxy for horizontal image separation but I am tempted to believe there are at least two layers of cloud present here.
Use of the term noctilucent cloud also raises interesting questions about atmospheric opacity, thermal structure and so on. On Earth there is a clear bimodal distribution in height separating tropospheric from mesospheric clouds with the latter appearing in very much darker skies. Nevertheless ordinary cirrus clouds high in the troposphere can also be spectacularly highlighted during twilight. How all this works in other atmospheres (Mars/Venus/Titan) would make the subject of a very interesting Planetary Society-style article.
What a great view that is! Here is a circular version.
Phil
The next drill site? Reached after a short drive on sol 2414
Brief but new https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/video-fly-over-mount-sharp-on-mars/ showing our current location and the prospective route ahead winding through the clay unit and on up Gediz Vallis Channel
The attempt to find a drill friendly, high potassium outcrop seems to have failed with the potassium enrichment apparently localised. Curiosity has previously discovered a number of localities with potassium content well above the Martian average and this has been impressively researched and analysed in the following link:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016JE005055
Woah... 64m drive reported. Is that a record?
No, the record is twice that, early in the mission.
Here is Jan's 2416 panorama in circular form. I always use images like these to establish the location for the route map.
Phil
Have any of you image magicians worked on the sol 2417 cloud animation yet?
I haven't worked on an animation yet, but here is what I obtain by stitching the first composite of the clouds:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasappere/47953052808/sizes/k/
And here is what I obtain when pushing the dynamic range to its limit: nice cloudy detailed structures! However, it highlights the seams between pictures.
Here is another version of the animation with image dynamic stretched to highlight clouds structure:
Sol 2422 Lmastcam post-drive view:
ChemCam RMI mosaics of 3 targets in the weekend workspace acquired on sol 2424.
Many of the outcrops in this workspace have surface features that are reminiscent of desiccation cracks seen earlier in the mission
Jan's two recent panoramas in circular form.
Phil
sol 2420:
A very roughly stitched mosaic of a set of overlapping MAHLI frames from sol 2424 that appears to feature the Woodland Bay target.
The mosaic is somewhat distorted and I'm sure one of the regular image wizards can do a much better job at stitching these together than me and MS-ICE.
I've posted this version just to give folk a heads up and it can be deleted once a proper version is posted.
My take on the Sol 2424 MAHLI images.
Jan van Driel
no.1
[quote name='jvandriel' date='Jun 3 2019, 12:01 PM' post='244887']
My take on the Sol 2424 MAHLI images.
Bit of a problem bottom middle of no.1 Jan. Part of one Mahli image duplicated right and down.
Great catch serpens and charborob.
I missed it.
Thanks.
Here is the correct one.
Sol 2424 MAHLI
Jan van Driel
Given that the the Woodland Bay target is anomalous showing lamination as compared to surrounding bedrock, can we assume that it has been rotated?
Sol 2425 L-MastCam cloud survey: Used GIMP/G'MIC-Qt/Repair/Bayer reconstruction. No additional processing, then roughly assembled in MS-ICE (see top version)
Then I used a bucket full of artistic licence adjusting the colours and made the version at the bottom for fun
Hoping someone can join some of the other images from the large set as unsurprisingly MS-ICE did not enjoy working with these wispy evening clouds, and maybe provide a better interpretation of what the colours will have looked like
Thanks, Jan. That shows we have left Woodland Bay and moved out into the plains again, south of where the last samples were taken. There is a nice bit of outcrop nearby, so maybe a new target. Here's a circular view of the area from Jan's panorama.
Phil
Midnight planets seems to be stuck on sol 2430, so from the MSL raw images page, here is the debayered view of an interesting hillock. Sol 2431 Rmastcam:
2432 post drive workspace (L-MastCam) MS-ICE otherwise unprocessed
Here's Jan's panorama in circular form. Comparison with the last shows how we are moving along the outcrop to a better exposure.
Phil
And another good drive on sol 2434 take Curiosity closer to "Waypoint 4" (refer to this mission update https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rover-curiosity-mission-updates/?mu=sol-2434-ridge-rage) L-NavCam partial pan roughly assembled in MS-ICE
and a partial view of the Sol 2434 Navcam L panorama.
Jan van Driel
Another drive on Sol 2435 - NLB partial pan
Skirting around 'Waypoint 4'? Very poorly stitched in MS-ICE
Sol 2436 - 10 frame RMI mosaic assembled in MS-ICE. Features some rocks atop the nearby ridge
These are the last two panoramas from Jan in circular form. We are moving down a valley between ridges and the outcrop seen in recent images is on the east side of the valley a bit further south of us.
Phil
Sol 2435:
Sol 2437: 6 frame R-MastCam mosaic bayer repaired in GIMP, assembled in MS-ICE, no further processing.
And another drive on Sol 2439
Here is a few of the L-NavCams from the drive assembled into a GIF, looks like it might have been a drive up to the ridge
ooh....http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/02438/NRB_613927069EDR_S0760832NCAM00595M_.html Sol 2438 NR
Cosmic ray hit, probably. No hint of anything at that location in the frames just before and after that one.
The stitching may be ugly on this Sol 2439 L-NavCam partial pan, but the vista from the top of the ridge makes up for it.
As usual MS-ICE butchered the stitching, but hopefully it will inspire someone to do a better job.
Joe Knapp's page puts the roll/pitch at +15°/+17° which must be up there on the leader board for a combined total
A circular version of Jan's panorama shows us perched nicely on the ridge. This should be OK for contact science (APXS) but not drilling on a slope like this.
Phil
Very nice indeed Charbob. It may be simply an artifact of the viewing angle combined with preferential erosion, but it looks like some low angle cross bedding there.
Possibly an inclusion (pebble)
Probably just wishful thinking
I don't think it is a clast Paul, but what would I know. Heck, I can't even decide whether this little fella is a clast or a blow in.
....aaaand Phil wins the coveted "Pareidolia Of The Year" award. Nicely done!
Now that is clever.
A shortish drive on Sol 2447. from the thumbnail drive images it looks like the drove back down the slope following the wheel tracks then turned towards the Southwest.
Not many post drive images yet, but here's a nice one looking back up towards the ridge and across Glen Torridon.
Jan's nice panorama in circular form. We drove off the ridge and will soon move further south.
Phil
Circular versions of some of Jan's recent panoramas. I can hardly keep up right now!
Phil
sol 2447:
The MASTCam L view on Sol 2441-2443-2446.
A total of 205 images Debayered and stitched.
Jan van Driel
Beautiful work Jan.
That light-toned material looks quite striking (in a hollow near the upper center of the image).
A crop from Jan's image:
Pediment protected by allochthonous detritus (likely), lithified alluvial fan or deltaic?
Jan's sol 2453 panorama in circular form. Out of the valley and up onto the rocky hill.
Phil
And a circular version of Jan's sol 2454 panorama. Com paring it with the last one shows how we have moved to the southwest a bit.
Phil
A short wheel check drive during Sol 1459. Roughly assembled L-NavCam partial pan of the view in front of the rover
The Mastcam L images taken on Sol 2455 and Sol 2458
Debayered and stitched.
Jan van Driel
Added also the MASTCam L images taken on Sol 2457.
Jan van Driel
Added also the MASTCam L images taken on Sol 2457.
Jan van Driel
Nice Mastcam mosaics everyone! Here is Jan's sol 2459 panorama in circular form.
Phil
Sol 2462 Mahli view of the rocks:
Short drive on sol 2463: post drive partial L-NavCam pan, roughly assembled in MS ICE
Curiosity Sol 2463 end of drive stowed MAHLI. It's been a while since we had one of these
The complete MAHLI view on Sol 2462.
( 18 images )
Jan van Driel
Great new HiRISE image from May 31, showing the mast!
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7453
The emission angle is only 10.6 deg for that shot, so isn't the turret more likely? Knowing what azimuth the camera view was from (ie 10.6 deg in which direction?) and where the turret was at that time should decide it.
The end of the arm is largely dark. That's the top of the ChemCam housing on the RSM - no doubt about it.
It was Sol 2423 for MSL
Images
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=2400#/?slide=2423
Plan Description
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rover-curiosity-mission-updates/?mu=sols-2422-2423-familiar-rocks-at-our-feet
"Then on the second sol ChemCam will acquire observations on 2 autonomously selected AEGIS targets, along with some Navcam dust devil and suprahorizon observations to monitor the atmosphere."
It's the second sol of a 2 sol plan that had a drive on the first sol - therefore the arm remains stowed.
That includes a ChemCam AEGIS block (Navcam images with a CCAM sequence ID are AEGIS) a dust devil movie and supra-horizon movie, and then the RSM would have stowed - which is 0az, -48 deg in rover frame. i.e. pointing forward and down.
The arm was stowed at the time it was taken.
Jan's sol 2463 panorama in circular format, another small drive on the rocky hill. I'm running a bit slow on the map update as I am roughing it in the bush at Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. Spent the day on Long Beach... it's a tough life being retired. Map update will follow when i can get to it.
Phil
The MSL web pages have recently been modified (upgraded?)
Like many I'm not a fan of change part way through a mission but I'll likely warm to the revised format eventually. But that is not the reason for this post.
The image server changes may have had a serious effect on Midnight Planets and Joe Knapp's image pages. Unless they have both have had issues at the same time
There are recent images on JPL's server that are missing from both Midnight Planets and Joe's page. Sol dates look OK, but published dates appear to have reset to the beginning of 2000. Selecting thumbnails on MP's sol 2466 page goes straight to 404 errors (both on PC and APP versions). Joe's 2466 page has no thumbnails, just image placeholders.
The new 'whereistherovernow' page has all the map thumbnails, but clicking any of the recent maps gives 404 page errors.
Hopefully these are just teething problems with the new design that will be fixed soon, but not sure if fixing those teething issues will fix Joe's and MP pages.
Joe's site has been showing only mahli images for a couple of weeks now, so there seems to have been a different problem there.
But a completely new official public image site would mean both Joe and MP would need to completely rewrite their image harvesting code, I'd think. That's a big job.
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