Exploring Murray Ridge, Sol 3600 - 3743 (March 11, 2014 - August 5, 2014) Options

[charborob]

Sol 3600 right navcam pan:


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Apr 24, 2014. This thread is dedicated to the rover activities after the winter campaign at / around Cook Haven. Moved several pages from that thread here.
Tesheiner (Moderator)

[Phil Stooke]

Circular view of Charborob's pan.

Phil

[jvandriel]

The Sol 3600 Left Navcam view.



and the Sol 3601 Left Navcam view.



Jan van Driel

[atomoid]

the surreal negative shading effect of filter 2 on the dusty little campfire ring rock garden from SOL3601

..seemed a good candidate for gif illusion (epileptics probably should NOT open)

[charborob]

These rocks look like ventifacts.

[serpens]

Curiosity might be getting all the attention but for me Opportunity remains the doyen of Mars rovers. Yet another change of scenery in the rock garden at McClure Beverlin West. Lithic breccia clasts eroding out of a sandy matrix?

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Explorer1]

Hey, when'd we drive to Gusev so fast? No one told me!

[atomoid]

sol3609: its nice to finally get a peek over the top

look! up in the sky, is it a cross-eyed cloud? is it schmutz? sort of, its just an amateur job at filling missing sky pixels.

[Astro0]

Sol3609 - another fine day on Mars


NB: Sky added for effect

[jvandriel]

The Sol 3610 L0 Navcam view.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

The Navcam Lo view on sol 3608




and on Sol 3609




Jan van Driel

[fredk]

I'm not sure exactly where we are, but I think this new view is just over a small ridge on Solander, and we can't yet see to the highest part of Solander, or beyond to Tribulation.

But we did see some real clouds tosol:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol3610

[jvandriel]

For the complete view I have added the images from Sol 3607
to the panorama taken on Sol 3608.

Jan van Driel

[fredk]

Actuallly I'm willing to guess where we are - this is not based on data at all, I just stared at navcams and the orbital view for a bit:

It makes sense as we head south to stay close to the plains-side of Solander - smoother driving and longer line-of-sight views for planning.

[charborob]

Sol 3609 pancam pan (similar to jvandriel's pan but with one more image on the left side):

[Tesheiner]

Actuallly I'm willing to guess where we are - this is not based on data at all, I just stared at navcams and the orbital view for a bit:

I just extracted the latest info from the pancam website and this is the result. I did no manual corrections at all for the time being but most probably will have to. Your guess based on the navcams should be more accurate.

[Phil Stooke]

Right... that whole track needs to be shifted to the left about one diameter of that crater at the top left edge of the image.

Do we have enough images for a 360 pan from the recent stop at Augustine?

Phil

[jvandriel]

Here is the complete panoramic view from images taken on Sol 3607 and Sol 3608
with the L0 Navcam.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

Fantastic - thanks. And with a little bit of geometric magic, it becomes a circular version of the area.

Phil

[fredk]

Power levels up to 574 Whrs - that was a good level at the best part of this past summer!

[serpens]

Sparkly clean.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[charborob]

Sol 3613 pancam pan:

[Ant103]

I don't totally forget Opportunity, and I found myself processing this color panorama of Sol 3609

[jvandriel]

The Pancam L 2 view on Sol 3613.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

Spectacular! What a great place. That picture just makes me think I could walk right up to that ridge and peek over it. It seems that we have still not seen the layers under the impact ejecta that we saw at Cape York (Whitewater etc.) - obviously we were very lucky to find that exposure. But there's lots more crater rim to explore.

Phil

[serpens]

They identified those layers as the pre impact surface / sub surface, only a few metres above the Burns formation level, so I don't think we could reasonably expect to see it high on Solander. The interesting thing is that Larry Crumpler's LPSC paper identifies that the unconformity between impactites and the pre-impact surface had a dip of some 11 +/- 2 degrees towards the crater centre. This correlates quite nicely to Parker and Bills paper hypothesising that the bench does in fact reflect a previously level coastal geomorphology and there was subsequent tilting towards the crater. Circumstantial, but worthy of thought.

[Ant103]

Sol 3613 Pancam panoramic Is that some crater we have behind the crest ?

[neo56]

Very nice mosaic Damia! Oppy is really doing mountain hiking
There is indeed what looks like a crater on the left part of your panorama. But I can't figure out where it is located on fredk map.

[tedstryk]

Sol 3613 Pancam panoramic Is that some crater we have behind the crest ?

Wow, beautiful! The best view from Oppy I've seen in a long time.

[fredk]

Nice view indeed. I think this is the crater in question over the near crest:

I don't think we've moved much since the 3610 location.

[Phil Stooke]

I agree with that crater location. And it was only a small move, 3 m or so.

Phil

[atomoid]

concur-o-gram

[atomoid]

sort of interesting detail of "Turnagain Arm" back on sol 3598 makes me forget im not looking at a HiRise of kimberly

[Bill]

Any idea of what we are seeing West on the horizon ?
http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MERB/im...0P1777R0M1.html

[Phil Stooke]

Not sure about that... but we are about here at the moment.

Phil

[PDP8E]

Hi Bill,

Here is a Phil-O-Vision (10x stretch, vertical only) of that navcam 3618?



I don't know how to obtain azimuths from the pictures (some here do I think)
If I had a bearing we could consult a HiRise image for possibilities

First Guess:: it looks like a rock.
It is as dark if not darker that the surrounding 'horizon stuff', a more distant object could be lighter than the horizon material since there is more atmosphere and dust to see through.

cheers

[ngunn]

I don't know if we can see out across the plains yet but if so there is a candidate small crater in that general direction that is quite prominent. I gave it the nickname Rockaway when we first saw it. It does look darker than its distance suggests.

[Phil Stooke]

A little bogus-malogus colour image of Point Bede.

Phil

[jvandriel]

The 360 degree Navcam L0 panoramic view on Sol 3618.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

and the Pancam L2 view on Sol 3618.

Jan van Driel

[atomoid]

sol3621 crosseye of biggest rocks Oppy has seen since......?

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L0 panoramic view on Sol 3621.

Jan van Driel

[fredk]

Some crazy-looking "raked" or washboard terrain from pre-drive 3621:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...5M1.JPG?sol3621
I assume we're just seeing lots of fine ripples perpendicular to the line of sight. The ripples are hardly visible in the corresponding navcam:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P0673R0M1.JPG
That's the same nameless 5-10 metre crater we've been eyeing for some time now.

[fredk]

And now we're almost at 90% dust factor!
The cleanest panels since 2006!
From Crumpler's latest post.

[dilo]

Very impressive!
As visible from following plots, in the last 5 years dust factor never went above 79.5% (record set on Sol 2313 or July 27, 2010):

[PaulM]

...
From Crumpler's latest post.

This anouncement in Crumpler's post is very interesting:

"After we take a look at the local outcrops up here on the ridge crest, and maybe drive to the local summit for a good view of the crater, we will start driving south along the west side of the rim."

Given the uneven terrain on the Western side of the rim this means for the next few Years Oppy will always be within a few 100m of a North facing slope, which I think is a good decision

[dilo]

...for the next few Years Oppy will always be within a few 100m of a North facing slope, which I think is a good decision

In fact, they shows 3 possible paths in this region, while "next long-term target is about 600 m south along the west side of the crater rim"; however, the 10-26 sol drive time seems optimistic to me (unless they refers only to full, long drive sols!)

[fredk]

But the path in question (path "A") stays away from the rough ridge of Solander and would probably be easy driving like out on the plains (and much easier than our climb up Solander so far). So that drive time sounds realistic, considering how fast we drove from Nobby's Head to Solander.

Of course in practice the limiting factor for the drive time will be the science stops.

[charborob]

Sol 3625 pancam filter 2 pan:

[vikingmars]

Sol 3625 pancam filter 2 pan:

Thanks a lot Charborob.
The view on the plains on the other side of the crater starts to be terrific ! I hope they will image it with the "L7" filter soon to gain more details far away. Thanks again

[James Sorenson]

I'm working on processing the color images for the deck pan, but here is an L4 mosaic of what I got sofar.

[charborob]

Thanks a lot Charborob.
The view on the plains on the other side of the crater starts to be terrific ! I hope they will image it with the "L7" filter soon to gain more details far away. Thanks again

Here is the left filter 7 pan on sol 3625 (the last image on the right is incomplete; I had to adjust the curves to make it more or less match the others). Are there really more details visible?

[Ant103]

Same view, in colors. Very good sighting there !

[serpens]

An interesting update from A. J. S Rayl.

http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-top...cook-haven.html

[craigmcg]

Is there a map of "the bench" referred to in the above article?

[vikingmars]

Are there really more details visible?

Thanks a lot Charborob ! Yes indeed : some craters on the far horizon are readily much more visible (as horizontal dark markings)

[centsworth_II]

Is there a map of "the bench" referred to in the above article?

I've indicated the bench in this image from Larry Crumpler's April 3 Planetary Society Blog. It is well defined at the north end where Opportunity arrived at Solander Point, but seems to be less well defined to the South. This could be due to some extent to lighting.

[jvandriel]

The Pancam L7 view on Sol 3625.

Jan van Driel

[James Sorenson]

Almost finished with processing the color images that will be added to this but here is the L4 deckpan sofar.

[James Sorenson]

[neo56]

Really nice work James ! I didn't expect the solar panels to be so clean.

[Astro0]

Opportunity: Doing 'selfies' since 2004

[Phil Stooke]

A long-awaited moment (by me at least) - Cape Tribulation viewed over the top of Murray Ridge:

http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MERB/im...3P1835L0M1.html

Phil

[ngunn]

Long awaited by me as well. I'm looking out for another glimpse of the Miyamoto 'Mule Ears' off to the SSW. They were not visible in navcams before but we're a bit closer now. There are some camdidate bumps among the noise but nothinjg more so far. I'm hoping that the planned panorama from the local summit will be a full 360 and not just the view into the crater.

[jamescanvin]

Yay! I was hoping that this drive would finally reveal it and there it is. Nice to see where we're going.

[Dig]

Panorama on Murray Ridge. Sol 3630. Navcam left.


Click to full resolution.

[Astro0]

Just wondering if any of our mapping gurus (Tesh, Phil etc) would be able to point to places on the horizon that would be headings for craters like Santa Maria, Victoria etc?
Not expecting them to be visible, just interested in directions.

[Phil Stooke]

Great pan, Dig - here's a circular view of it to help locate us on the hill.

Phil

[mhoward]

Opportunity Update - sols 3622-3629, April 02, 2014-April 09, 2014: Getting in Place for a Better View of 'Endeavour Crater'

On Sol 3628 (April 8, 2014), the rover drove about 69 feet (21 meters) to the south in an approach to a local ridge top, a vantage point that offers a view with an entire sweep of Endeavour Crater. Once there, the plan is to collect a spectacular color panorama of Endeavour.

[eoincampbell]

I wonder just how much more spectacular it could get ...

[Ant103]

Sol 3633 Pancam panoramic. The view is astounding ! We can see Cape York there !

[Floyd]

Nice, I love the tracks winding up the hill!

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L0 view on Sol 3632.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

Pancam L7 panorama of the wheeltracks on Sol 3632.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

Great view, Damia - here's a stretched perspective view of it to make it easier to identify things.

Phil

[brellis]

The ~absolutely gorgeous~ pic assembled by Ant103 in Post #254 shows the crater I've always wanted to be named the Far Side Crater in honor of Gary Larsen. True?


Fun fact - I premiered a concerto for electronic keyboards and orchestra with the LA Phil in 1989. Someone taped this cartoon to the curtain where I was to pass thru to receive my soloist's applause. LOL

It's the higher crater, IIRC.

[Ant103]

New pictures are down today, the occasion to complete the full panoramic over Endeavour crater



Thank you James

[jvandriel]

The complete 360 degree Navcam L0 panoramic view taken on
Sol 3630 and Sol 3632.

Jan van Driel

[James Sorenson]

My take sofar on the Endeavour Pan. There is a circular donut area on the left most part of the Pancam images that at leased for me isn't removable with current flat-fields unless however I brush them out. I have noticed this for quite awhile.

[ngunn]

Now as I was hoping we see the horizon to westward included in the pan. I assume the blip near the middle of this image is the same feature discussed in posts 235-8 above but still awaiting firm ID.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...LCP2415L7M1.JPG

I see no very distant features here such as Bopolu or Miyamoto. Perhaps we're still not high enough even on this summit, or perhaps the air is just not clear enough at present.

[charborob]

Sol 3635 navcam view:

We're almost at the top!

[atomoid]

sol3635 dune texture makes for interesting xeye

[Phil Stooke]

A circular semicircle from sol 3635, just west of the prominent crater at the top of the ridge.

Phil

[ngunn]

Thanks Phil. From your circular pan we can now see that the blip on the horizon is on a bearing close to 241 degrees. This means it can't be 'Rockaway' which should be near 272 degrees. My best guess for the blip is now a crater about half the size of Victoria and about 15 km distant. If I'm matching up the contour map with CTX correctly that crater and 'Rockaway' are located on the same gentle N-S rise which I think forms our western skyline from this viewpoint.

[neo56]

@James : really nice colour mosaic! I'm looking forward to the final panorama

@atomoid : there is a really good 3D effect on your xeye particularly between the foreground and the background. I love these little dunes

[atomoid]

...best guess for the blip is now a crater about half the size of Victoria and about 15 km distant...

So the 'blip' crater would seem to be this apparently younger one (arrow), not the eroded scalloped one (Rockway?) closer in.


@neo56: if only I could get the clumsy sw I have to not mangle the seams, I was trying for a bit wider vantage of that scene..

[James Sorenson]

I've been doing some minor fine tuning of control points in my rover deck pan template and I added the rest of the images. Still some fine tuning left to do. Here is the L4 mosaic. The JPL version looks great


EDIT: Whoops! sorry please move this post.
ADMIN: Done!

[ngunn]

Atomoid: That's the one I'm suggesting but I'm using nothing more sophisticated than a school protractor laid on my computer screen. I'm awaiting confirmation or just as likely correction by someone with better tools. I note that this crater has wind streaks extending southeastward from each side suggesting there is significant relief there. The larger crater farther east is more eroded and furthermore lies in a hollow so I don't expect to see it.

[Incidentally 'Rockaway' is not that crater but the much smaller fresh one that appears as a dark spot at the top of your image almost directly above the arrowed feature. If you're interested you can find its original ID in post 259 of 'Distant Vistas' and a good view of it from near Concepcion in post 201 of that same thread.] EDIT: And the contour map in post 123.

[ngunn]

The larger crater farther east is more eroded and furthermore lies in a hollow so I don't expect to see it.

Maybe I'm wrong about that. Checking the latest images I see a feature which could be that crater just below the horizon and just to the right of the foreground slope: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...MZP2417R1M1.JPG

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L0 view on Sol 3635.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

and the one on Sol 3637.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

I really like this ripply landscape, believe it or not. Here's a circular version of Jan's nice panoramic view for sol 3637, and a map showing where we are.

Phil

[ngunn]

Here is an enlarged crop showing the dark streak close to the horizon that I think may be part of the 'Victoria-twin' crater 8 km to the SW of us. I say part because the whole thing should subtend a horizontal angle of about 6 degrees or one-third of a pancam image.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[atomoid]

selected ripply sol3637 pair stereo. tried to make stereo pan but my tools (and chops) cant handle making the needed adjustments that work so well in jvandriel's fine work, im including sample at right below anyway if for no other than comedic purposes.

[PDP8E]

Here is an image of the objects on the WSW horizon.
It is from Pancam on sol 3635
I rotated the image 4.66 degrees CW to get the horizon level(ish).

I then used a high pass filter (line detector with 6 pixel radius) to accentuate the darks (darker) and brights (brighter) at the high frequency pixels on the horizon, and then stretch it vertically (Phil-O-Vision).
A histogram of a high pass filtered image is centered on DN 128 and is normal, with long tails

the object on the right looks like a crater
note the smaller (smaller? farther?) object on the left

[ngunn]

The size you show for the crater is right, I think, for a 500m crater at 15km.

Regarding the smaller feature on the left, the topography suggests that it should be at a similar distance. There is indeed a smaller crater a bit to the east of the 500m one, as seen here, on a line with the 'Victoria-twin':
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/op...saic_notext.tif

[charborob]

Nice pancam view of Cape Tribulation on sol 3637:

[Ant103]

In colors

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L0 view on Sol 3639.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

Checking in from the UK with a circular version of Jan's pan. I still haven't located it.

Phil