[X] My Assistant

[Joffan]

As suggested in the "Victoria and her features" thread, we can discuss here the possible visit to Corner Crater (or whatever it will be called) [[ETA: now officially confirmed as "Beagle Crater"]].

Personally I think this will be a valuable stop, worth at least a run around 1/4 of the crater rim and a few days of MIs. Understanding the cratering process on Mars, especially the weathering afterwards, by examining craters of different ages can only enhance the understanding of the data we collect in other places.

[CosmicRocker]

I wanted to make a couple of quick comments. I agree with dvandorn that the edge of the ejecta blanket behind Beagle Crater should make a very interesting science target, worthy of some time to study it. As Doug pointed out, there is also a lot of other science/investigation to be done around here, but I don't know if the decision makers will allow 20 sols for it. I also agree with CryptoEngineer (and perhaps others) who pointed out in the other thread that the ejecta blanket south of Beagle appears to be a bluff, but that a ramped approach to Victoria is available slightly to the east. That seems quite apparent in the MOC anaglyph of the area which I am attaching.

I believe our recently verbose and enthusiastic friend earlier requested anaglyphs of Beagle. I had made some from the longer baseline stereo-pairs provided by fredk and dilo. An extended baseline pair was an excellent idea, guys! I had tried to do some of Victoria earlier, but didn't think about Beagle. I'll also attach them, and attempt to draw a conclusion about whether we are seeing the near or far side of Beagle.

I found it difficult to come to a firm conclusion about Beagle's near/far visibility when I first studied the anaglyphs. But then I realized I should look to the MOC orbital imagery for help. On those, it seems obvious that there was a taller pile of stuff around its southeast side than anywhere else. After realizing that and going back to the anaglyphs made from fredk's and dilo's stereo-pairs, I convinced myself that most of the elevated rim we are seeing on Beagle is on the far side. Those two darker rocks we have been seeing are on the near side. There also appears to be a somewhat darker and lower rim on the near side. An elevated southeast far rim is also consistent with the low western extension we see.

(whoops, had to edit to correct an incorrect file attachement)

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Shaka]

I believe our recently verbose and enthusiastic friend earlier requested anaglyphs of Beagle.

He did, indeed, and, ever true blue, you came through! Thanx, Tom! (I hope that rings of enthusiasm; I'll save the verbosity for later.)

I found it difficult to come to a firm conclusion about Beagle's near/far visibility when I first studied the anaglyphs. But then I realized I should look to the MOC orbital imagery for help. On those, it seems obvious that there was a taller pile of stuff around its southeast side than anywhere else. After realizing that and going back to the anaglyphs made from fredk's and dilo's stereo-pairs, I convinced myself that most of the elevated rim we are seeing on Beagle is on the far side. Those two darker rocks we have been seeing are on the near side.

I usually prefer to leave this eye-strain exercise to Dilo, Rod and Tesh, who revel in it, but thought I had committed myself to taking a shot.
I looked at your first (stretched) anaglyph for quite a while, and eventually convinced myself that the third bright peak from the left end of BC, looked closer than those on either side. I can't see much to indicate height in the MOC image, though it seems apparent that the near rim casts a shadow over the majority of the crater bottom. I couldn't calculate sun angles the way Tesh might, but it at least suggests to me that the near rim has some height. In spite of that, when I inverted the MOC view of BC to line it up with the Oppster view, I thought I could see a number of feature correspondences that do put some of the high peaks at the back:

I could be quite wrong in this, because the MOC and Oppy viewpoints are 90 degrees out. Everything we see from Oppy could be near rim, but for now I'm supporting a near/far split.