She's not there yet.

And of course, no disrespect to any naysayer way back then, amongst them, me (my toaster is pre MER and still works )

The pipeline is back!

I'm liking the Mercury cluster!
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2584
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2586

And the pics from the criss-cross "inverted terrain" are up, too:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2581
That's more contrast than I expected.

Indeed not, but you can number me as someone who would have mocked anyone who made the suggestion, way back when. "That's why they play the game," right?

Here's a cropped pan from the Sol 2586 navcams

Click to view attachment

I was looking at this a few days ago but didn't want to say anything and jinx it. Keep in mind that we’re not there yet.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=3215

No, she's not, but read back my post and you'll see I was referring to the "halfway there" part.

Click to view attachment

Loving the composition - the crater with the hills on the horizon...

So am I the only one old enough to think this image reminds me of a Rolling Stones album cover?

What's Rolling Stones?

It was just waiting for a little stretching . . .

Check the latest map update because I think the stop at this crater field is already over. No "shiny" rock around here.

"It was just waiting for a little stretching . . . "


Aahhh! Stretching - is there anything it can't do?

Phil

The Navcam L0 panoramic view on Sol 2585.

Jan van Driel

Click to view attachment

Great work, Jan, just a lovely view. That's Mars right there, isn't it? Ancient craters, stretch of razor-flat horizon, mountains reaching up to touch the sky... glorious, glorious place. What I'd give for a real colour version of that view, but we've already moved on. And fair enough. Endeavour calls.

Edit: Oooh....

02587 11:07:07 p2411.27. 1 0 0 0 20 20 20 pancam_Freedom7_4x1_L257R2

...and the others, too...

(My pics on here, if anyone wants a look: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/...mercury-cluster )

Sol 2586.

The Navcam L0 View of the FORTY LICKS Crater.

Jan van Driel

Click to view attachment

Farewell Mercury cluster?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2588

They are now 125m far away on the rear mirror, and we should be reaching the 29km mark in two driving sols.

Edit: ... or even one. Tomorrow's driving might put Opportunity next to the traffic sign. Fingers crossed.

I hope JPL make an event out of hitting 30km its a milestone that will deserve wider recognition in my opinion. I've noticed the NASA twitter feed rarely talks about planetary missions.

Farewell Mercury cluster, hello weird circular features:

Click to view attachment


Phil

PS - Scott tweets 160 m today - not too shabby!

New pancams down = new drive direction panorama...

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Hmmm... something bright and interesting on the horizon... Will have to see what it lines up with on Google Mars...

(larger version here: http://twitpic.com/4u8rj2/full )

Saw that too. If I did my math correctly, it is heading at 102º so it might be this little fellow 450m away.
Click to view attachment

I haven't done any maths, but I'm looking at a feature about 1200m away. It looks like a sizeable crater (around 70m diameter) quite badly eroded but with a surprising amount of bright stuff showing.

Pic, Nige?

I don't do pics easily, but it's pretty prominent here: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=24273

Just go 1200m slightly S of E from the Mercury cluster.

You're getting really good at this crater-spotting lark, Nigel...

I asked Ray Arvidson what it was:

"Yes it is off about 1 km at an azimuth of 102 deg from the current rover position."

Sounds like your crater.

Edit: Bit confused now... 1km / 102 deg from current position =

Click to view attachment

"1km / 102 deg from current position ="

Yes, but what about "about 1 km..."? The fresh-looking crater is 'about' 1 km away, just not exactly 1 km away. And that crater may be the true identity of 'Young Blocky' as well.

Phil

I've taken Stu's image and added a green arrow pointing to the crater that I think Nigel is talking about. It could be the bright patch we see near the horizon, but the bearing to it in Google Mars is 96 degrees. That's quite a bit off from the 102 degrees that Ray said it was. 102 degrees is also the bearing that Midnight Mars Browser gives for the bright patch.

I know the base HiRise images we are using in Google Mars for the route map are offset somewhat from Google's underlying frame of reference. I don't think an offset alone would cause errors in bearing, but if our map is rotated it could.
Click to view attachment

The offset is because I registered this latest package of HiRISE images to the previous one covering SM which was also offset in relation to the background. There was no rotation on it, except for the one already existing in the original picture on its map-projected form.

You're right, that was my guess, but it doesn't seem to square with the azimuth so now I just don't know. We had azimuth problems with Santa Maria as well did we not? It will be interesting to see how this resolves itself.

There is another possibility. I previously suggested that the crater at the top right here could be 'Young Blocky':
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=24231
Going by the route map that crater is pretty close to 102 degrees from our position a few days ago, though admittedly rather further than 1 km.

Ngunn, I agree with you that the crater at top right in your image is probably the one.

Phil

Heck I'm still not sure. I've just rechecked my first suggestion. That crater (the one CR indicated) is close to 1050m E from our current position and the brightest part of it, the southern rim, is about 150m S according to the grid. That would fit well enough with '1km and 102 degrees' I think.

Stu - I can't quite make sense of the '1km 102 degrees' line on your google map. It doesn't seem to agree with the scale at the bottom, or with the azimuth I'm getting now. If the horizon feature is this crater then it's only a small part of it as the whole thing should subtend about 4 degrees.

That pic is tilted down at the top Nigel, just to give a sense of perspective and show the route after that crater.

I'm waiting for some email confirmation as to exactly which crater that bright feature is. Watch this space.

Edit: Ray Arvidson very kindly emailed me to let me know that the bright feature on the horizon there is probably this one ringed...

Click to view attachment

...and looking at it using the IAS viewer it looks very interesting...

Click to view attachment

A (relatively) recent impact into an area of bright bedrock?

I think it is becoming visible even on the navcams so it might not be so far away. See this picture from the latest batch: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...MFP0663L0M1.JPG
I still believe it is "my little fella".

This is a tough one, but I'm going to go with Tesheiner. A few reasons:

It's dropped significantly below the horizon on 2589 compared with 2588, which suggests it's closer rather than farther (once the 2589 pancams are down, we'll get a better sense of this).

The width agrees well with the width of Tesheiner's crater (about 1 degree on 2588), though a portion of Arvidson's candidate could appear similar width.

On 2588, it was about 31 degrees from this crater to the north:
Click to view attachment
That agrees with the navcams if the northern crater is the light mark just below the centre horizon of this frame.

And the last reason: Arvidson's candidate looks very ancient and probably has very little relief, so I wouldn't expect to be able to see it from this far away. Tesheiner's has a raised rim which we could be seeing.


My main reason to doubt Tesheiner (apart from Arvidson being on the "inside", of course!) is that his crater was only 450 metres away on 2588. That puts the horizon very, very close. But if that were true, then we must be in a local low, and perhaps by the time we get to the crater we'll be out of the low and the view will open up again towards Endeavour...

It sure does, irrespective of whether it is identical with your horizon feature or 'Young Blocky', or both - or neither.

Thanks for the zoom. Let's go there!

Oh, this is fun, isn't it? I love these games of "What is it on the horizon"? Genuine "armchair exploration".

Exactly, Stu! Sure, it's nice to sit passively browsing the latest images from Oppy. But it really gets fun when you can take part in this kind of real-time "exploration"!


I've added one more "weird circle" (crater remnant?), labelled D:
Click to view attachment
Feature A is circled in this navcam:
Click to view attachment
Feature D is in this view:
Click to view attachment

In the enlarged image, there is a very narrow crack that runs right through the bedrock and the crater and the surrounding terrain. If the impact is recent, then the crack must also be even more recent. Very interesting indeed.

That's how I feel, too. Two centuries ago curious people like us would have been standing on the deck of a sailing ship, leaning on the railings, looking out to sea, straining our eyes to try and spot the next "something" on the horizon. Today Oppy is our sailing ship, travelling across an ocean of ancient dust, and we're all - virtually - there with her, seeing what she sees, shielding our eyes from the Sun, straining to see the next "something" on the horizon. Instead of flying fish we see dust devils. Instead of dolphins leaping of of the water ahead of us we have shining meteorites sitting on the cinnamon sands like statues. Instead of a cerulean blue sky, we look up at a dome of butterscotch and gold. And on the horizon, hills... mountains... and soon, landfall, with all the mysteries and surprises that always brings...

Cherish these days, my friends. We'll miss them when they're gone, much, much more than we can imagine now.

Re the crater 1km away: There is always the vertical dimension not to be forgotten - though it looks like in this case it's lacking altogether. Believe or not, this is a full size anaglyph of the feature pointed out above by Stu, sharpened and color adjusted. I can't see any relief at all, not to speak of blocks. Definitely old and not blocky.

(The constituent HiRise images are those used e.g. for Cape York anaglyphs, so they should be valid.)

I tried another method which was comparing with the heading to the crater on the far side rim (when will they name it???) to the right of our feature. The relative heading is 11-12 degrees based on the pancams from 2588 and the absolute heading is currently 114 degrees if I trust the CTX mosaic I use as background on the route map to the left of the HiRISE background picture. Match.
Click to view attachment

Interesting marswiggle. I agree that most of it looks pretty flat, but the southern portion looks slightly elevated to me. Maybe my imagination playing tricks.

I expect the next pancams will soon make everything clear so here's a final bit of last minute guesswork. I agree with fredk that the main part of the bright feature is the right size to be Tesheiner's little fella and now he's posted independent confirmation so that looks pretty convincing. However on the images we have already there is also a string of bright pixels extending off to the left for another degree or two, which is why I originally plumped for the larger crater identified by Arvidson. Maybe they're both right and we're seeing the prominent little fella with parts of the larger eroded crater behind it.

Hmmm... interesting anaglyph there MW, this is all getting very Sherlock Holmesy...

I've just had a thought... I might have misinterpreted the email from RA. I sent him this pic:

Click to view attachment

...asking which of the craters shown on it was the crater we're seeing on the horizon. When he replied "the leftmost one" I assumed he meant the leftmost one of the ones I'd labelled for him... maybe he meant the leftmost one on the whole pic, which would be yours, Tesh?

Should all become clear soon.

Take heart, as we well could be back to the days of exploring 2 regions simultaneously after arrival of "Curiosity." Oppy might be very reluctant in passing the baton. Lets hope for many more years.

Considering all of the evidence laid out in the last page or two, it is really getting difficult to doubt Tesheiner's crater as the one we are seeing.

More evidence for Tesheiner's crater. We can see two other craters (labelled B and C) to the left of the one in question (A):
Click to view attachment
Measurements of the angles match with these craters:
Click to view attachment
Also, the relative distances (B, C, A from nearest to furthest) agrees with their positions relative to the horizons, and the crater widths all look good. I'm definitely with Tesheiner.

I really love this big view which puts Oppy's journey into perspective. It shows how very far we have come from Victoria. And especially encouraging is the significant progress she's made in the few weeks since leaving Santa Maria. Endeavour, here we come!