To the Cape! (part 2), For real this time! Options

[CosmicRocker]

One of the latest tau images from sol 1583 apparently captured a local sunset. It doesn't appear to be a transit of one of the moons. Its description was "late tau," so I assume it must be a view toward the west. Apparently its metadata is not yet available, because I can't find it in MMB's sol 1583 panorama.

I assume this shadow must originate somewhere on Victoria's western rim. It would be fun to discover exactly where the sun set from Opportunity's viewpoint at the time.

[Tesheiner]

Here're the info from the pancam web: az=-63.7671, el=-12.5.

[HughFromAlice]

James, what a truly amazing view of Cape Verde and how excellent your work is! It exemplifies the high standard of UMSF and how much you guys passionately love what you are doing.

Since Oppie is my sentimental and scientific favourite, it's appropriate for me to make my first post here. I'll be posting from time to time - when I have something useful/interesting to add. (+I'm very very busy running my own business!) My formal background is psychology but I have wide ranging interests.

I'm from Alice Springs in Central Australia where the Milky Way is awesome to behold in the cold clear nights of winter. If any of you UMSFers happen to be passing through such a remote place as Alice then feel free to contact me through this forum for some Centralian hospitality and a few good pointers on great places to visit.

[elakdawalla]

I'm a bit lost -- can we assume that Oppy now significantly closer to the cliff than it was on sol 1567?

Well caught on that sunset -- that's pretty neat.

--Emily

[jamescanvin]

We backed off just a touch on 1582 (a matter of inches)

But tosol (1584) is another driving sol so Oppy should be on the move in the next few hours.

James

[nprev]

Just remarkable work, James; congratulations! Why do I feel another UMSF AW&ST cover coming on?

Stu, I am going to find some new 3D glasses as soon as I'm off @%&# nights this week, I swear!!! (Just got home after almost 14 hrs of joy, here...)

I'm not even a geologist, but I'd probably give ten years of my life to spend just a week here with a rock hammer and a hand lens.

[Ant103]

James, you're really fast What is you secret ?

So, I'm not as faster as James but here is a quick view of this big pan, not blended, only in L2 :


The next step will be coloration .

[jamescanvin]

James, you're really fast What is you secret ?

Many years of writing a stupidly complex program to do a lot of the hard work automatically - oh and what time did I post that pan, half past midnight!

Good luck with your version!

James

[TheChemist]

Many thanks James and Stu !

I don't know about you guys, but for my eyes the 3D images Stu posts happen to be the most realistic ones I've ever seen.
Stu, please keep them coming !

And as a bonus ..... there is a small abyss in the left of the cape :-)

[fredk]

One of the latest tau images from sol 1583 apparently captured a local sunset.

Tman's decoder gives just after 5pm local time for that image (as anyone who's lived in the mountains knows well, apparent sunset can be well before "true" sunset, when the sun hits zero degrees elevation). If that azimuth of 64 degrees is right, I think that point is off the left edge of the new pancam mosaic.

Did you guys notice that the corresponding R8 image to that L8 sunset shot is empty (1x1 pixel)? Apparently the parallax between left and right cameras meant that the sun had already set for the right camera, and so the solar auto-cropping routine just returned an empty image. If you were looking at the rover at the time those images were taken, you'd see the shadow of Verde bisecting pancam, with the right camera in shadow and the left in (partial) sun.

[Stu]

I don't know about you guys, but for my eyes the 3D images Stu posts happen to be the most realistic ones I've ever seen.
Stu, please keep them coming !

Wow, thanks, I really appreciate that. I just realise that there's No Way I can produce panoramas as good as others here, but I have got quite nifty at making 3D pics and colourised crops, so I limit myself to those now. I love being able to look into a 3D image and imagine reaching into it, through the screen, across all those millions of kilometres, and wrapping my hand around the rock, feeling its rough edges even through the thick material of my spacesuit glove, feeling the weight of it as I lift it off the ground and see the talcum-fine martian dust hissing and trickling off it before holding it up in front of my visor and turning it round and round, wondering and marvelling at how long it's sat there, inside Victoria Crater... it's just the most amazing feeling...

[Gonzz]

Gorgeous work James, thank you very much

It's a beautiful cape, a rocky whale cresting over a waterless sea

[Tesheiner]

And here we go, up to the wall.
Nice flare on the camera.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...B8P1213R0M1.JPG

[TheChemist]

Fingers crossed. The sand looks very soft

[Astro0]

Take a right and DON'T go into the Light.