According to Tesheiner's map approach crater and the top of cape york could be in one line of sight now.

Here the bump on the right side of the pics: Approach crater
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2357R2M1.JPG

I did some measurements on GE too and Cape York right now should cover 28deg. i.e. much more than the FOV of a pancam picture. Once we reach Approach Crater it should span 40deg.

The problem it seems is that our Rover Driver friends by diverting from the "planned route" path/line have taken us around the right side of the "summit" we were approaching. So we are still in this bowl depression and my guess is 15-20 feet lower right now than we would be if that purple line, "planned" route had been followed. That small elevation difference makes all the difference in the world based on our position relative to CY and where it is "hiding."

On the other hand, it appears that in a few sols when we climb over that ridge there is going to be an eye-popping vista of Endeavor's far wall (well, eye-popping for Meridiani explorers). A lot of it depends on whether they tack right or left from the current position. If they got to the left, back toward the original path we'll see some serious relief almost immediately, but if they go right it will be a few more sols longer before the horizon changes.

If Oppy drives stright to Spirit Point, she will briefly dive off our big map. Do we need to add one more tile?

I'm betting on a visit to Stu's Notch, followed by a drive by Approach Crater. Then we'll probably be OK with Tesheiner's map for now.

Really looking forward to the big Revelation of Endeavour...

Cue Sid James laugh...

We're close to that view, so close now...

Just catching up with things after being out all day, avoiding TVs. So what do we all think, two more drives until our first shot at a HOAV?

It seems to me that we still are going down.
Here a comparison of the crater wall crater, which give a good indication of how deep we are in the current depression.

Why so few drives the last couple of weeks?

Here's an overview of the found meteorites of Oppy along its trek. I counted 12 meteorites on the trek.
We travelled 31 km, and maybe found every meteorite 50 m left and right beside the trek. So Oppy investigated about 3.1 square kilometers and found 12 meteorites.

Spirit Point ist about 17 km south and 10 km east of Eagle crater (Opportunity landing site for the younger of us), so in this region between Eagle crater and Cape York covering 170 square kilometers there should be about 658 meteorites lying around.

Was Santa Catarina at Victoria a meteorite? Or something else?

If I find out how to make links to the internet in Google mars I will post the .kmz File.

Not sure. But 2652 looks like a drive sol, so all being well they could be about 10% closer this time tomorrow.

Latest bedrock target to be studied by Oppy...

Looking at the 3D Hirise image again, there seems to be a ridge just before getting to cape York! The cape is hidden behind this ridge and it will take opportunity to ascend right to the top of this ridge before it will get a good whole view of the cape.

Moreinput: Bounce Rock was thought to be ejecta, not a meteorite. A small rock called Barberton on the south rim of Endurance may have been a meteorite as well.

Phil

Thanks for the meteorite plot, MoreInput. To add to Phil's comments, we're also not sure of course that the two recent rocks "Bypass 1 and 2" are meteorites, since we didn't examine them close up. Also, we've been travelling much faster on the W-E leg than S from Victoria, so there's been less drive imaging per km, and so we might expect to find fewer meteorites per km. On the other hand, meteorites could've been more easily hidden in the higher ripples on the N-S leg.

MoreInput: Santa Catarina was thought to be a stony meteorite, as were Barberton, Santorini, and Kasos. See "Properties and distribution of paired candidate stony meteorites at Meridiani Planum, Mars" for more info.