Astro0, I love that.

I spent some time today experimenting more with anti-vignetting. Here are some Autostitched mosaics from Sol 751 using MMB anti-vignetted and brightness-adjusted images as input. On the Flickr pages you can click the "Original Size" link at the top for the 100% size versions. I *don't* know much about Autostitch configuration (and don't intend to learn) so the Navcam one in particular may be a bit off from what an expert would produce.

Navcam Sol 751 (incomplete):


Pancam (probably incomplete?):


Here are the MMB views:

Great "poster" Astro0!!

phantastic work again, Astro0 !

it's always amazing how your Rover-SFX bring "life" and sense of scale into those images

Does anyone have a reasonable explanation for the almost rectilinear appearance of the ripples in the far left of this image? I'm totally perplexed. It seems... unnatural!

David

aeolian?

Nico

I'm not sure which 'rectilinear' features DFinfrock is referring to. If it is the pattern of small ripples perpendicular to the crests of the very large drifts, this is a common result of changes in wind direction, seasonal or even daily. It's been seen frequently at Meridiani.

Phil

Great website! Wow...those really look convincing!

I too really like Astro0's images. They are very well done. I like the way they can take us back to different mission phases, a great walk down memory lane. And I had never been so aware of the value of seeing something familiar to give a sense of scale. Keep it up!

I just showed the Payson image in my Space Exploration class. It was well received.

Pil

Thanks everyone for your words of support and encouragement for these SFX images.
On my site you'll notice that there has been a heavy weighting towards Spirit images, but I am going back to look at some of the earlier Opportunity shots and producing a few views from earlier sols.
Keep an eye out for a new one of Oppy at its heatshield soon!

I have to acknowledge again though all the incredible work done by UMSF'ers in producing many of the backgrounds from the raw data, as well as for the various sources of Rover shots. Brilliant work!

Just in regards to the rover scale... the wheel tracks certainly help, but for some views without those references it's a combination of just looking at the various camera views and making an educated guess.
A lot of art is really just interpretation - beauty in the eye of the beholder so to speak.

I'm just so in awe of these two amazing vehicles and the human minds behind them.
This Martian "adventure" - and that's what it's been - is inspiring at so many levels.
I remember SS saying that while he wanted the rovers to help us learn about Mars, it was also always about education and inspiration to a new generation of space explorers (young and old).

The MER teams have achieved all that and more

Astro0

Hear! Hear!
And true art can do so much. In Opportunity at Payson Passage I swear I can hear Oppie buzzing and humming with a stoic yet eager determination! He can't see his ultimate destination, but he knows it's out there, and he has a will to keep on truckin' until it's reached. (insert emoticon for a little misty-eyed)

Note added: I haven't felt this way about a robot since Artoo Deetoo.

I suppose you're right. On the Large size view, it is apparent that the perpendicular lines extend downwind from the dune crests. But is you look at the Original size view, and pan over to the left, it still looks strange to me, seen up close.

David

Wouldn't it be cool to know what noises MER makes when it drives, flips open its dust covers, extends its arm...
Can we get any from SS...?

Adding some sounds to a slide show of Astro0's perspectives would be spine tingling.

Maybe with the sound of the wheezey wafts of Mars's tenuous atmosphere.

Nick

I have some footage from the 'Eyes on Mars' DVD of MER testing, and they're very very quiet actually. Nothing I could really hear - apart from the bang of pyro's.

Doug

Sounds like a winner, Astro0! There must be somebody at the tracking station as good with sound effects as you are with visuals.

On Mars itself (if that's what you mean) the low pressure probably makes it a very quiet place for human ears. I doubt if the small actuators can be heard at all. The amplitude of movement of the moving parts of the ear is a factor 100 lower on Mars compared to earths circumstances. That means a sound of 80 dB(A) here is about 59 dB(A) up there (half the energy is a 3 dB decline in sound pressure) . I'd say, that means you'd have to scream your lungs out of your body to make yourself clear to someone right next to you. The problem of not being able to breath there will even make that harder to do RATting might be heard from up close though......

Astro0, you've got the rover the wrong way round!

In my image Oppy is heading in the right direction. A little past this position, before heading out of Payson Passage it does a 180° turn and drives out backwards. Take a close look the Hazcam drive images as well as some of the panoramas and polar projections produced by other UMSF'ers.

Thanks
Astro0

Game, Set, Match.

Oppy's walking backwards for New Years, across the Hematite Sea...

Yeah ! soon we'll be setting sails again, crossing the vast Meridiani Sea Of Black Sands ...

... towards the land of final destination: The Great Victoria Crater

Damn ...

I found what you meant on the navcam images of Sol 747 and Sol 751.

Look at the route map again. There's as much cracked pavement as seas of black sand.

".....Adding some sounds to a slide show of Astro0's perspectives would be spine tingling."

You want spine-tingling?


Just use a Theremin!

Opportunity leaving Erebus crater on its way to Victoria crater?

A panoramic view from Sol 753 taken with the L0 navcam.

jvandriel

Good pano Jvandriel

Yes, I think that Opportunity will going to Victoria.

"Go to Victoria! Go to Victoria! Go to Victoria! Go to Victoria! Go to Victoria! "

Nice site. Being a former Anglo Montrealer, my french is still hanging in there since moving to BC.

Way ahead picture... sol 755
Click to view attachment

Are we still in period of "restricted sols" ; is that reason why Opportunity drives once every 2 days...