And looking at your post here I see that you were EXACTLY right. Well done Tim.



Overlay of Tims position 'Mars Pathfinder' label on the MOC (plus Phil's annotations) and the Hirise with the 'MPF' label.

James

I agree - looks better but is missing some important info.

Note, for this release at least, you can remove the 'diafotizo.php?ID=' bit from the URL and get to an old style version.

James

Well I'm not Tesh, but as a fellow tracking site gazer I think I can tell you what we know.

The most resent front hazcams are from sol 1049 and are listed as



So I think we can be fairly sure that Oppy is in the process of doing a lengthy Mössbauer integration on Santa Catarina at the moment. Just more pancam targets for tosol so looks like there is still a while to go yet...

James

Well I used AIPS - but that's because I'm a radio astronomer and a sadist - I wouldn't recommend that!

FV seems to work and I think the GIMP will open FITS files these days although as far as I can tell you can't play around with the grey/colour scale range after loading (although I've never really tried) I think there is a photoshop plugin out there as well, 'FITS liberator' or something, never tried it but I probably should!

James

Yep I can download the files as well, but I don't think that is because the embargo is over but rather a fault with the archive. I've emailed someone about it for clarification and until we hear otherwise I don't think it's appropriate to post any of the SECCHI images on UMSF.

The .fts files are, as I suspected, standard FITS files and open fine for me.

James

I just had a look. But then I noticed this:



Well I guess the 'first few months of the mission' have passed but I suspect they mean of the science phase and that this embargo is still in place even if there is no password required at the moment. I guess I'll email someone before posting anything I shouldn't...

I can't seem to get to the data atm (only the home page loads and very slowly). I assume .fts will be some sort of fits format. I'll have a go at this this week if I can get anything off the site.

James

A bit late with this Christmas stuff but here is my version of the sol 1036/7 view back across Bottomless bay.



And here is the long baseline (~2.5m) anaglyph pan from sol 1034 & 1036/7



James

Long time to reply - just catching up after Christmas / new year.



Fair enough - I guess it is in a way. I was just under the impression that we were talking about individual features (up to whole capes and bays) in individual threads and that this thread was for pulling those ideas together for Victoria and Meridiani as a whole. Parts of this thread have been fascinating and taught me a lot and I didn't want to see it descend into a 'ooh look at this odd rock' thread and away from the big issue. But that's just me, if people want a geology hold all so be it - back to Santa Catarina...

James

Moved posts about the strange feature to a new thread - Not really about Victoria's Stratigraphy is it.

Cheers Chris, although I'm on a Mac so have very little use for strange .exe files Glad it's fixed in the upcoming version though, these multiple transits of planets and moons is an awesome sight. Your right, very difficult to observe in real life, (not least getting to Titan, and living to 103) but that's why we have Celestia.

James

I'll go 1170 - 13 times the primary mission time.

Yep, Happy Christmas everyone. My parents are arriving here from the UK tomorrow so I might not be around so much, for the next couple of weeks. I hope you'll forgive me if a few pans are late/missed.

Have a good one,

Cheers,

James

Thanks, now that's a transit!



Quite a different date for me though 29 May 2061 13:00 UTC mid transit.

I think Titan transits almost right across the center of the sun just afterwards as well (but I can't see it as I'm still on the old version, waiting for the power in Seattle. Just have to track Titan and imagine it at the centre of the screen )

James

Welcome to UMSF Chris, and can I take a moment to thank you for Celestia - totally awesome.




Ooh, nice find! Yup, Celestia gives the same (more or less I don't think the times quite match) here is a screenie.



And did you notice that Ganymede transits one way, just about crosses the suns limb to end the transit and then recrosses it and transits back the other way!!!

BTW Chris, when I do this all the moons of Jupiter disappear while Jupiter is within approx one Jupiter diameter of the sun so I miss a lot of the action. (Although I am using an old version (1.3.2) atm so maybe that bug has already been fixed.)

James

NE (Cape B1) side of Bottomless Bay - Sol 1019 - L257



Sharpened and shadow enhanced version.



James

2008! Wow, that's a long time.

Can we stick to sols with predictions? I find it hard to think in earth time. That would be sol 1621/2 for you then.

I'm going to have to think about this one... but I don't think it'll be THAT long.

James

Yup.



Except that in Celestia this happens a day later on the 20th (starting around 13:00 UTC and ending 04:00 UTC on the 21st)

James

Yup, Sofi Carter is a purely UMSF name, The JPL folks called it "Bright Crater" on the map where they called some of the far capes Cape1, Cape2, etc.

I didn't, I just looked up the pointing data. The images aren't downlinked yet.

James

The 1027 drive direction pancams are pointed due east, so I don't think we are going to approach the end of Bottomless bay but head straight around to the far side to image the cliffs on the SW side. As far as I know the next cape (B1) has no name other than "Bottomless Bay NE"

James

I'm pretty sure these are the Islas Baleares (from the sol 1016 navcams)



James

Yes a nice surprise! Not a contrdiction, the status report says they moved 2m to get some long baseline on BB_NE, which is true*, what the fail to mention is that after that she then drove another 50m!

*Actually according to the tracking data the move was more like 5m. Complicating sol 1021 even more Oppy then drove a further 11m before imaging Islas Baleares *then* the final drive of the sol.

Personally I'm glad that a 100m OWL is canceled for now, it was just a bit too "overwhelming". I think the challenges of this 42m monster are going to be huge, jumping straight to 100m would have been crazy and could have resulted in a lot of wasted money. Those of you unhappy about this, think of this as a OWL prototype, I'm sure we'll get a 100m class scope one day, and it's going to be a lot easier after a few 30-50m ones have been built.

James

I suspect the place to ask this would be at nasaspaceflight.com

Each type of rocket is going to have a different pad - your likely to find the most info about the shuttle pads - a quick Google brings up a few interesting hits.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/lc39a.html

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/nasafact/padstoc.htm

I'm woefully unqualified to answer your questions but I can have a quick stab. No structures hold rockets up, if they are strong enough to survive the ascent they can quite happily sit on the ground under there own weight, the gantry is used to service the rocket, not hold it up.

The exhaust go into a flame trench to direct it away from the vehicle at launch.