Distant vistas, Endeavour, Iazu, and beyond Options

[fredk]

Ngunn, using the proposed route we've seen from the abstract, I agree that we'd turn east before reaching the "crater beyond twin craters". But nothing stands out for that crater (it doesn't look especially fresh, eg), and I'm sure we'll encounter more similar sized ones on our trek. Of course we have to keep in mind that that's only a proposed route - we're not commited to it. Also the resolution of the proposed map isn't great.

In terms of the view, according to the contour map, the best views will be between the south and east. The rise around "crater beyond twin craters" is towards the SSW, so it shouldn't block our views towards the south to east. I don't know what kind of view we'll get to the SW (eg Bopolu), since I haven't seen a topo map in that direction.

[fredk]

Meanwhile, here is another look at Iazu... I have labelled four hills, and the way hill D gets displaced relative to the other three suggests it must be on the far rim of Iazu.

I agree D is on the far rim, and in this post I also claimed that the bits on the right are far rim. Here's a cross-eyed version of the long baseline stereo view for those red-green challanged out there:

[Phil Stooke]

Right, I must have missed that! Very good. That far rim topography is the most distant we can see so far, I assume.

Phil

[ngunn]

What's that on the right?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...66P2368L7M1.JPG

[nprev]

Could you be more specific? Nothing jumps out at me.

[centsworth_II]

Could you be more specific? Nothing jumps out at me.

Maybe he's referring to that faint rise on the horizon.

[ngunn]

There appears to be a hill on the horizon extending in from the right margin for about 10 percent of the image width. It's visible in 2 of the 3 filters.

EDIT: You got it centsworth.

Looks like I'll just miss the answer - I'm off for a week's holiday now.

[vikingmars]

Could you be more specific? Nothing jumps out at me.

Thanks ngunn. Feature noticed also... Enjoy the enhancement

[Phil Stooke]

Comparing this with the circular pan from the other thread, this lies in the right direction to be Bopolu crater.

Phil

[fredk]

Here's my attempt at pulling Bopolu out of the haze and jpeg noise. Average of L5 and L7, contrast and 3x vertical stretches:

Bopolu in its entirety would subtend around 18 degrees for Oppy, while this bit's only about 2 degrees wide. So presumably we're seeing just one high part of the rim now.

[Phil Stooke]

I guess that's now the most distant bit of terrain we can see.

Phil

[ElkGroveDan]

I guess that's now the most distant bit of terrain we can see.

...unless we spot a planet or one of the moons in the sky.

[fredk]

I was curious how the distance to Bopolu compares with the distance from Spirit to Gusev's rim, which is roughly 70 km if I'm right. I make the near rim of Bopolu to be about 58 km from Oppy. The far rim of Bopolu would probably be a bit farther than the Gusev rim from Spirit. So since we could easily see the Gusev rim when skies weren't too dusty, it's not surprizing that we can see out to Bopolu.

[fredk]

The new pancams from 2153 show more of Bopolu. Also the visibility is a bit better than on our first glimpse - I guess the dust has settled a bit. I've averaged the L7s and L5s, and pieced the frames together (the central strip is the average of all four overlapping frames):

Actual scale above, 3x vertical stretch below. This is still not the entire 18 degree extent of Bopolu...

[Phil Stooke]

Very nice, Fred! I hope it stays in view for a while, though it might become less visible when we are in the lower region east of here. Still, around the time we begin to descend we may get better views than this. Now we just need a really good atmospheric clearing! I was just looking back at the early views of Gusev's rim from the Columbia Hills - amazing views at times.

Phil