Sol 343 Navcam Anaglyph - This covers over 240 degrees of horizon from the dunes to the crater rim (the frames center from 230 at left to 9.86 degrees at right). Tried to tweak the levels to retain a good balance between foreground and crater rim so as to preserve some rim detail this time.

There's some very bright material near the top or just beyond of one of the knolls a bit left of center. It's not the right direction for the backshell though. But off to right of center there's a rocky crag that juts up just above the horizon that's at about 275 degrees azimuth. I get an azimuth reading (in Google Mars) of 276 degrees to the backshell now at a distance of about 617 meters. So that'd put backshell and parachute on the other side of that rocky knoll I figure.

I looked for signs of the Skycrane impact (304 degrees at 820 meters) and Bradbury Landing (342 degrees at 260 meters) but at this resolution, even if they're visible from here, it's a real stretch. There's a bright patch of ground in the direction of the landing site (middle right of pano) that's visible just over a small rise, but upon inspection it looks to be the lighter colored ground area visible NNW of the Sol 343 position rather than Bradbury. In any case, gotta love the views from up here!

...and a quick Sol 342 5-frame navcam anaglyph. There's more terrain details toward the south now visible. (Exposure values for ground detail washed out those nice crater rims at upper right though...)

Sol 341 - Morning Hazcam Anaglyphs...

If a western tack is indeed the plan, a Google Mars measurement puts the Backshell at only 668 meters away from Phil's last marked position at Sol 340, at an azimuth of about 272 degrees (& the center of the Parachute about 269 degrees). According to the meta-data the front shot below centers at about 242 degrees making the direction of the Backshell somewhere off to the right of center. Don't see anything there yet, but then we're still pretty far off...

Front:


Rear:

Love the stereo images guys. I find the Mt. Sharp base canyons tantalizing too. Combining selected Sol 36 and Sol 42 images offers a super-clean (all-MC100) anaglyph pairing of the northern foothills. To my eye the strata appears to slope downward toward the crater floor. It reminds me a bit of the terrain in the Raplee Monocline area near Mexican Hat Utah. Mt. Sharp's sloping strata isn't as drastic of course, but the depositional>uplift or depression>erosional aspects seem quite similar...

A few anaglyphs from Sol 340.....

Front Hazcam:


Rear Hazcam:


2-Frame Navcam of immediate foreground:

...and a 3 frame navcam anaglyph of the terrain lying just ahead. Interesting. Looks to be a slight depression with a few undulating rises across it's floor, some jagged boulders strewn about, and some very light colored outcrops at left. It's pretty exciting to see some new horizons...

Sol 337 Post-Drive Hazcam Anaglyphs...

Front:


Rear:

Here's a quickly rendered Navcam Anaglyph of the big crater at front left. The other depression you mentioned Phil can be partially seen at far right. Yup, for my money that saddle in between them looks like the safest bet...

...and the post-drive Sol 336 Hazcam Anaglyphs. That big depression we're approaching (& visible in the route maps) is finally discernible on on the left in Damia's pano above.

Front:


Rear:

Well, I personally haven't created a GE route map with paths and markers yet. The files above are just image overlays of course. I did some searching last night for anybody on the web who's keeping one updated but didn't find anything yet. Now that you've asked though - it kinda got me wanting to, and I'd of course endeavor to keep it updated henceforth. Will post something here if I get that going. The quick measurement and azimuth tools available in GE Mars would certainly make it handy reference during the the long trek fer sure.

I did check out how far JPL's "Explore Mars" interactive app has come last night though. They currently have the complete route from Bradbury to John Klein mapped (but no further) and the rover can be driven back and forth the entire length. Every turn and rotation in the drive history appears to be very well mapped. I have to say if this were updated daily and the ground texture resolution could be improved somewhat it'd be a killer resource. The digital elevation appears to be fairly accurate and at scale too.

With the one kilometer milestone and Phil's scale meter now on the route maps I thought it'd be interesting to overlay MSL's entire route thus far over something terrestrial to get an idea of just how far we've come. As it turns out everything from Bradbury Landing to the current position on Sol 335 fits nicely into The Ellipse at President's Park in front the White House in Washington D.C. This seems fitting too as the EDL team put her down right in the center of landing ellipse! When it comes down to it - we've really been buzzing around a pretty tight neighborhood so far...

Here's an oblique view from Google Earth:


..and an even higher resolution aerial photo overlay:


The Google Earth KML file is here: http://www.edtruthan.com/mars/MSL-Route-Ma...hru-Sol-335.kml

Once you're in Google Earth you can really get a feel for how far it is to the base of Mt. Sharp (and oh my) - it's almost to downtown Alexandria, Virginia - about 8km south. Zooming out in GE and checking out that distance really illustrates just how far that is compared to The Ellipse. Seems we've a very long journey ahead indeed.

One Kilometer! Congratulations to everyone at JPL and the extended MSL team for their 1st kilometer on the red planet. I posted a few graphic overlays of the route onto a terrestrial background in the MSL Route Map thread for a feel of how large an area the entire traverse from landing till Sol 335 covers. Compared to the distance to Mt. Sharp we've got quite a long journey ahead...

Sol 335 - Post-drive hazcam anaglyphs...

Front:


Rear:

Hazcam Anaglyphs after the 15.48 meter drive on Sol 333...

Front:


Rear:

Onward! Looks like it's all new digs from here then. Here are post-drive Sol331 front and rear Hazcam Anaglyphs...

Front:


Rear:


...and thanks as always Phil for the ongoing route map updates. Having the scale bar (
as suggested by charborob) is a really nice addition.

Two more complete MC34/MC100 sets from the Shaler visit are in. Here are Anaglyph and 2D versions of both...

Sol 309 - North side of Shaler. A 60 frame mosaic with lots of interesting geology. There's a hollowed out bubble remnant at extreme lower left. The depth of field makes close zooms on the upper right and lower left a bit testy but I've tried to balance the channel separation overall for easy viewing. Click thumb for half sized version (6776 x 4064 pixels - 5.18MB):

Full resolution Anaglyph version (13551 x 8128 pixels) is here in a 16.64MB Zip: Sol309-MC34-MC100-(Set-1275)-North-Shaler-Anaglyph-13551x8128px.zip
Full resolution 2D version (13551 x 8128 pixels) is here in a 14.71MB Zip: Sol309-MC100-(Set-1275)-North-Shaler-2D-13551x8128.zip


Sol 311 - North side of Shaler. A 44 frame mosaic. The details brought out by the low sun angle makes this one a real treat. The spiked remnant pointed out in FredK's post is near the left center of the mosaic. Same channel separation extremes begin to arise at upper left and lower right. Click thumb for half sized version (7538 x 4426 pixels - 5.65MB):

Full resolution Anaglyph version (15076 x 8851 pixels) is here in a 15.65MB Zip: Sol311-MC34-MC100-(Set-1279)-North-Shaler-Anaglyph-15076x8851px.zip
Full resolution 2D version (15076 x 8851 pixels) is here in a 13.06MB Zip: Sol311-MC100-(Set-1279)-North-Shaler-2D-15076x8851px.zip

Sol 329 - Hazcam Anaglyphs from new our position after the 41.05 meter afternoon drive. Tracks from the Sol 52 drive visible at upper right of front view....

Rear:


Front:

Two more recent MC34/MC100 complete sets are now fully downloaded. Here they are in Anaglyph and 2-D versions...

Sol 308 - Approaching Shaler, bubble region. This is the full 60 frame pano in which that well defined bubble appears (lower right center). There are two more distinct bubble remants in the image. One, a half bubble at upper right and the other a full bubble at upper center. In addition (to my eye at least), there appears to be at least two more bubble-like remnant "dishes" in the image. The channel split variance from the angle and size of the area captured makes very close zooming on the upper section a bit tough on the eyes, but zooming out a bit solves the problem.

(Click thumb for half-sized version (5770 x 3850 pixels - 3.22MB):

Full Resolution 11540 x 7700 pixel Anaglyph version is here in a 10.12MB Zip: Sol308-(MC-Set-1273)-60-Frame-Panorama-Anaglyph-11540x7700px.zip
Full Resolution 11540 x 7700 pixel 2-D version is here in a 8.49MB Zip: Sol308-(MC-Set-1273)-60-Frame-Panorama-11540x7700px.zip

Sol 306 - Point Lake surroundings. An 18 frame view with a nice depth of field. Center of the view faces approximately 200 degrees azimuth. Several of the MC100 frames at lower center were a bit out of focus, otherwise a pretty crisp set overall. Same channel split variances for close-zoom issues apply here too.

Click thumb for full-sized version (9755 x 3315 - 4.53MB):

Full resolution 2-D version is here: Sol306-(MC-Set-1267)-18-Frame-Panorama.jpg

SOL 327 - Hazcam Anaglyhs from the post-drive position, and yup, Rocknest is top center in the rear view, though not much detail is discernible...

Front:


Rear:

Here are half and full resolution versions of the complete 44 frame MC100 2-D panorama from Sol 323:

Click thumbnail for Half Resolution version at 11797 x 1184 pixels (2.78MB):


Full Resolution version at a whopping 23594 x 2368 pixels (9.38MB) is here: Sol323-MC100-Panorama-23594x2360px.jpg

Nice views Airbag. Those appear to have MC34 (for stereo) counterparts not yet in too! Sweet.

Navcam Stereo Anaglyph of the old Sol 120 and new tracks - taken leaving Shaler Sol 324:

And finally in... a much closer look at one the bubbles - Sol 308:



...and an anaglyph:


My my...

Is that Willie Nelson I hear? Sol 324 - 17.96 meter drive over old Sol 120 tracks back towards Bell Island. Looks like she drove stern first, and in less than 9 minutes to boot - that's really cookin'...

Shaler out the rear view mirror (front hazcams)...


Over Sol 120 tracks looking dead ahead toward Bell Island (rear hazcams).


It's been half a year for those old tracks now. Interesting to see them again. To my eye they do look a bit softened up and drifted into...

Dusk & Twilight... Sol 322...

Final anaglyph renders of the Sol 303 and Sol 306 mosaics of the big rock at Point Lake in different lighting. The lighting in the Sol 306 image really shows the variety and depth of the hollows and there's one very spiky pinnicle-like remnant that's quite visible in stereo.

(These are massive enough in pixel size browsers cough at them so I zipped the full-resolution versions for download.)

Sol 303 - Click thumb for half-resolution version at 4642 x 3208 px - 3.4MB:


~ Full Resolution Anaglyph version is here: Sol303-MC34-MC100-Point-Lake-Anaglyph-9283x6415px.zip (10.02MB)
~ Full Resolution 2-D version is here: Sol303-MC100-Point-Lake-9283x6415px.zip (8.5MB)

Sol 306 - Click thumb for half-resolution version at 4566 x 2817 px - 3.2MB:


~ Full Resolution Anaglyph version is here: Sol306-MC34-MC100-Point-Lake-Anaglyph-9132x5633px.zip (9.77MB)
~ Full Resolution 2-D version is here: Sol306-MC100-Point-Lake-9132x5633px.zip (8.5MB)

A copious number of mosaics from this last week just keep pouring in. Keeping track of what's arrived and how their arranged is a bit of a challenge. Some have all the MC34's in but I'll probably wait to collect the corresponding MC 100's for them before rendering them. There's a ton of amazing Shaler panoramas to stitch when the sets are complete. Will post when they're in. Exciting times!

Kudos to the imaging team for that saavy moonrise capture! And sweet animation Zelenyikot. Nicely done.

Hitching a ride with MSL, here's a 10 Frame Animated GIF from the front hazcams of the short drive on Sol 317 at 1.4 seconds per frame. The early morning shot is the beginning of the animation:


...and an anaglyph version:

Great views everyone... Here's my take on a full resolution (7001x3209 pixels) anaglyph version of the first of the three MC panos shot on Sol 315. This one, at 18 frames, appears to be first sequence completely downloaded thus far from that Sol. Not sure they'll overlap the others yet.

A 2-D Version is here.


Will post more as completed sets from the many MC pano's taken this week trickle in. Many are are only partially complete (waiting...waiting...aaaarg) but they all look pretty interesting, especially for anaglyph renders. Shaler rocks.