[X] My Assistant

[CosmicRocker]

For a long time I have been curious about the fabled, "Hell of a view" location. Although I was expecting it along with the rest of you, I wasn't actively looking for it at the critical time. So, I decided to look back to define its location. It appears to me that "Hell of a View" (HoaV) was topped by Opportunity on sol 785. It is difficult to pick exactly when she began to descend from HoaV, but it was between sols 787 and 814. If anyone wants to count pixels to more precisely define it, be my guest.

I am attaching a montage of horizons, screen-captured with MMB at a constant magnification. It is captioned to note how the appearance of Beagle crater changes with respect to the horizon, as Opportunity changes in elevation. I have another montage combining Phil's most excellent route map with a stretched version of the original HoaV profile. Stretching the profile between Eagle and Beagle confirms a location for HoaV in about the same place. I just do not have time to upload it on dialup tonight. I'll post it tomorrow. Sorry.

I thought it might be fun to see who, if anyone, recognized the event when it occurred. Kind of like a reverse poll, where it is too late to hedge your bet. Searching the forum for relevant posts is difficult, but I came up with a couple of links. I suspect there may be one or two comments that I missed, so post your links here.

As we left Erebus behind, RedSky asked where HoaV would be. Phil and centsworth_II made pretty good predictions for the time. http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...amp;#entry45719

On this low-fi view of the forum, I discovered that Chmee seems to have recognized the topographic topover on April 14th, 2006. A little later Dilo agreed, and noted that Opportunity was descending. That was around sol 789. http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...;f=2&t=2417 Their recognitions are the best I could find, and so far, the winners.

Attached thumbnail(s)