From Cambridge Bay to the "parking lot" Options

[ngunn]

I did some measuring from today's suddenly rock-free pancams to check on earlier calculations. Result: the separation of he two prominent middle distance features increased by 4 percent. Using a figure of 43m for the latest drive, that puts them around 1070m away. The fainter feature that I tentatively identified as Santa Maria behind the leftmost streak is becoming clearer, as is fredk's one farther to the right.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...cam/2010-10-29/

EDIT: Is that 'waypoint crater' we're seeing over on the right?

[Guest_Bobby_*]

Santa Maria will be our Christmas Gift This Year when we stare into her crater from the edge.

[fredk]

We can start to map out the various small craters on views like this.

Yep! Here's my take on matching Phil's stitch-'n-stretch of the current pancam view to the orbital view:

I think these identifications are all pretty solid, except for crater F. I'm now pretty confident that the "two dark spots" are Santa Maria. I checked the growth in angular separation between those dark spots from sol 2382 to 2402 (long baseline), and it was consistent with SM's distance. And now the angular separation between the "two dark spots" and crater A is also consistent with the orbital view.

There are some craters beyond A that we should be able to match with a wider orbital view.

[ElkGroveDan]

FWIW my latest attempt to identify Santa Maria:

I just spent way too much time going over all these images and GE, and I think this is correct.

[Phil Stooke]

The distant dark spot beyond 'A' is visible in the Post #452 image above. (The 124 degree heading)

Phil

[ngunn]

I'm now pretty confident that the "two dark spots" are Santa Maria. I checked the growth in angular separation between those dark spots from sol 2382 to 2402 (long baseline), and it was consistent with SM's distance.

I got the same result while we were travelling ENE. The trouble with that was that we weren't approaching those features directly and the change in viewing angle may have had the effect of reducing the rate of widening, resulting in an overestimate of the distance. By triangulation TMAN found that 'rightmost' is 100m more distant than 'leftmost', consistent with such a result. (I suspect that TMAN's finding of a lower parallax for 'eastmost' is independent of the absolute values of the azimuths involved.) From the most recent drives on an almost direct approach heading I'm seeing about twice the rate of widening I'd expect if the features were at the distance of Santa Maria.

One thing's for sure. If those two features don't belong to Santa Maria they have clearly been placed exactly where they are and at exactly the right distance apart to cause maximum confusion.

[NW71]

I had to boost the contrast up to "OMG!!!"

I'm not sure I'm entirely familiar with that computer program Stu!

What are the other levels out of interest?

Neil

[Stu]

Well, it gradually builds up from "Huh, that doesn't look much different" through "Yeah, that does show a bit more detail" and "Ah, now we're getting there..." to "OMG!!!" and eventually ending at "My eyes! My eyes!!!"

[DFinfrock]

Stu,

You are such a clever writer... of prose as well as poetry. I always enjoy reading your posts.

[eoincampbell]

Yes, I love Stu's take on things, outreach personified...
I'm going to Endeavour with Cumbrian Sky Travel...

[BrianL]

I prefer booking the express through Stooke Travel. Cumbrian Sky has too many stops on its route.

[djellison]

The size of Endeavour is roughly similar to the central part of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles ~13 miles from rim to rim. (overlay image below)

Now the Vally has some spectacular views from the "rims" and on a clear day from the floor of the Valley the mountains do look spectacular (maybe Doug will take a gigapan for us from Van Nuys on a clear day.) However, those mountains above Los Angeles are anywhere from 700 to 4000 feet higher than the center of the San Fernando Valley, whereas Endeavor's rim is gong to be nowhere near that high. So there will likely be some nice views, but nothing breathtaking.

Tadaaaa

http://gigapan.org/gigapans/63708/

Taken from http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=34....mp;t=k&z=20

[nprev]

Giga-Doug strikes again!!! Nice.

[Ant103]

Hi,

A long long break into marsrovers imagery (sometimes it's good to have a break).

"Back to business".

Sol 2344


Sol 2363, with the meteor sitting on the floor


Sol 2379, a closer view of Oileán Ruaid.


Sol 2370


Sol 2371, the meteor. Beautiful piece


Sol 2385


I have other images to do.

[Gonzz]

You do make fantastic work Ant103, your images really take me there. Love those craters looming at the horizon, thanks for the interplanetary trip!