The sol 588 and 589 "strange bright lights" [sic], Using the power of UMSF for good Options

[jmknapp]

More bright lights from Sol 624 (today):

Left HAZCAM
Right HAZCAM

Visible in left and right cameras this time, but in a slightly different spot. Here's a comparison:



Seems probably related to shooting very close to the Sun, but what's the exact mechanism?

[anticitizen2]

624 blink at 09:07:15 UTC

Reminds me of the light seen during drilling on 621 at around 05:30:00 UTC

Here it is on 613 at 02:03:33 UTC <- this one looks very similar to todays

And on 611 at 22:44:34 UTC

I haven't looked thoroughly enough to say if it is always there at the same time. Also, I'm not sure how to translate UTC into Gale Local

[jmknapp]

Huh, didn't realize that the sol 621 spot wan't seen consistently in both cameras (overlooked the import of Deimos' comment). So maybe that one was not a reflection after all, but a camera artifact related to the Sun, moving because the Sun moved during the long drilling process?

[anticitizen2]

Not to draw this out much further (but people were wondering about this on the main thread for a page or so)

This might be a clue - after drilling on 621 when the arm force was removed and the rover tilted forward
http://i.imgur.com/hXFivqG.gif

Two minutes between images - there is some shadow lengthening, so how much of the light's change is attributable to camera movement and how much to sun movement?