[X] My Assistant

[fredk]

What's rising?
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...NCAM00545M_.JPG

[Deimos]

MER never imaged the ground while imaging a transit. Partly, this is the sheer scale of the event--maybe 60 km diameter, but no sharp edges. Partly it is that there is not a straight line from the science requirements to taking those images. Once in a while, maybe you do something just because you can. There didn't look like a good chance at Endeavor this year, but in principle right Pancam images can be taken in parallel with left RHAZ or FHAZ. You could do the same with NAV, but of course you couldn't point away from the Sun while also imaging the transit. And the sequencing on MER for that seems complex, given the hoops we jump through to get 3 sec/image out of Pancam.

Maybe next year hazcam could be kicked off earlier in the video. There are sequencing constraints, but boundaries aren't usually pushed hard the first time.

You could consider Navcam of a near-miss transit -- but of course the event center is >30 km away. That's a tough sell given the implications of the specific transit timing constraints on sequencing a sol. That's especially true with Opportunity's power limitations, but transits (and near-misses) don't wait for drives or comm passes ... and are less important than either, in general.