That should clear things up...

I also think that big crater would be very disappointing at ground level, except for some of the eroded rim remnants sticking up.

Only one way to find out!

If I'm counting the tree-rings correctly, that's about a 450 meter depression across that 30km "BAC". That's not too shabby. However, the "remants sticking up" would be about 150 meters across a base of 1km or more, not quite "twin peaks." Interesting terrain possibilities, but would there be something like Burns Cliff? Guess we'll never know!

The drive direction pancams are there now.



I'm probably reading way to much into this, but the fact that they are are taking two pancam pointings to image Emma Dean may give us a clue to how far Oppy is going.

James

Your probably rigth, James. They're not going very far tosol + they take time to take tau. I guess they'll stay in the "little craters" zone this week. Anyway, even a 20 m move in VC direction will give us enough imagery to play over the week-end

Thinking about it some more, I'm not sure they would drive away from Emma Dean and then image it from so far away (30m or so to get it all in two frames) so maybe those pancams will be of just one bit of Emma. Hmm.

James

Fitting, indeed. That link was a good find. I was also motivated to find some images of the boats and came across this site claiming to have historic 3D images. The image of interest was the one of "Boats of Powell's Second Expedition, before the start of the journey. The boats are "Canonita," "Emma Dean," and "Nellie Powell."" The first two of those apparently survived the first expedition. The problem was that their anaglyph didn't work for me, but I was intrigued. It appears that the anaglyph version lost a lot of information in translation from a cross-eyed pair. Left and right eyes were reversed.

I've corrected that, and also made a small correction for a baseline that was not quite horizontal. I suppose I might have repaired some of the blemishes in the images, but that would have detracted from it's historical appearance. Besides, it is well past my bedtime. If anyone who prefers side-by-side stereopairs would like, I'll be happy to post them, but I am going to bed for now.
Click to view attachment

Off topic==

Lake Powell has got to be the most beautiful place on Earth in the Solar system.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/hosting-data/50...75-001_copy.jpg

http://pictures.galenfrysinger.com/us/navajocanyon03.jpg

My take is that this pancam session in all filters will be the one and only activity related to Emma Dean and will be probably taken from the current site i.e. pre-drive.

And finished that imaging session, Another 100m, maybe? Why not?

Mmm, I've just read this previous post from Pando so disregard my last entry.
Given that plan (study the current site), I will "jump into the swimming pool" (hope it's not empty... ) and propose the following idea.

Click to view attachment

Sol 931 (Wed): Short drive up to those rock outcrops on the crater rim.
Sols 932 (Thu): Untargeted science.
Sols 933-934 (Fri-Sat): IDD science campaign.
Sol 935 (Sun): Driving sol.

Looks like we're just days away now... and without being overtly political here, I can't help thinking that seeing as each rover carries a small piece of the WTC (as described very movingly in SS's book) an arrival on the edge of VC on or close to September 11th would be quite fitting.

A week at this crater?

Remember we are on restricted sols, so the next earliest move after tosol would be sol 933 which is Friday.
In such a case it would have to be stopped 'till 937 (Tue) doing untargeted observations.

I like your plan. One, we get a good look at Zeta (what there is to see of it). Two, we get something of a wide baseline perspective on Victoria.

Also, I'm probably in rather less of a hurry to get to Victoria than are most of the others around here. Glad we made it this far, but I'd be perfectly happy to spend a few weeks on the rim taking a nice color mosaic, and then heading off again for parts unknown. I like the exploring, the seeing unexpected things over the horizon. About the time we hit Beagle I was already starting to get antsy about where to go after Vicky. The Twin Peaks on the northern edge of the Big Crater are only twice as far as we've already driven. On the other hand, to the south there are some interesting channel-like features which could be much more interesting. Okay, done blaspheming I'm sure Vicky will be spectacular.

I don't like the plan
because next week I will go to Vacation in Italy (Hi Marco !)...
with internet access probably impossible or very limited ... so I'm afraid that of all weeks
I will probably miss what will be the most exciting week at UMSF since i don't know when

... after hundreds of Sols of travelling it will be *the* one and only big week of first arrival, greatest excitement and
surprises and first images from the rim that I'll miss ...



Please, please Oppy: just do *one* more drive for just one litte peek over the rim before Sunday

anaglyph sol 929-930

I hope that I do not have reverses the blue-red channels I do not have glasses under the hand to check

Click to view attachment

Lake Powell is also famous for another kind of space expedition:

http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles...ashSiteMap.html

Vertical anaglyph sol 929-930

it is the first time that I make close projection vertical in anaglyph, and I do not have glasses under the hand, therefore I cannot measurement the result. if somebody who has glasses under the hand can make a comment on the relevance of the anaglyph on a vertical projection

Left vertical Projection 2.5cm / pixel
Click to view attachment

anaglyph vertical Projection 2.5cm / pixel
Click to view attachment

I've had a look and there some effect at the near side of the crater - but not much. I had to rotate my head 90 degrees for it to work. The point of stereo is to show depth - but my reprojecting you've translated depth into X and Y anyway, so it doesnt really make sense. As I said - there was some 3d effect....but not a lot, and certainly not much that made sense.

I'd invest your time in just doing more of the 2D ones

Doug

Can we get a reliable answer to whether Oppy is gonna stick around here for some days or if she'll do another long drive tosol?

The answer will be here in six hours or so.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist)

Speaking of plane projections, the pancam images add a surprising amount of detail (I hadn't tried including them before):

Click to view attachment

That's a 50 meter square, done with AlgorimancerPG. This is one of those cases where plane projection is a bit questionable - craters should be round

yes,
I just come back to my house, I took my glasses and indeed,
it is not terrible , as one say “un coup dans l'eau”,
but , the anaglyph of the panorama spheric is not badly , a little bizzard effect with the projection of the images of the pancam over, but it is nevertheless good



I indeed will make projection vertical 2D for the moment,
but I do not despair to perhaps make ortho-vertical image and truth vertical anaglyph
I can already do it with the XYL but the goal of the play is to do it without, or to better do the XYL myself
but I am not any more very far from the solution for the xyl ( i think )

Looking at tosols imaging schedule it's just a bit too busy to be a long drive sol imho....not sure exactly where they're going, But then - drive direction imagery from the end of a short drive doesn't make too much sense but perhaps driving 10m SW to the other side(ish) of Emma will provie VLB stereo using the drive dir imagery from yestersol toward Vic.....maybe?

We'll know in what, 4 hrs ish?

Doug

Good luck! I tried something similar before (to get 3D info out of stereo images), and it was fun! Take a look:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...p;p=44090&#

JPL's news : NASA Rover Nears Martian Bowl Goal
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-104
They think VC is 70m deep

Climber, Thanks for notifying us a good and fresh news about the future JPL's plans on Victoria Crater.

Rodolfo

If the NASA release is correct and VC is 750m wide x 70m deep, then I don't think we'll be disappointed with the view from the rim.
Here's a quick illustration of Opportunity in scale with VC.

I for one can't wait!

Click to view attachment

Enjoy
Astro0

Gotta give that "quick" graphic five ooos and six ahhs, Astro0...

Getting seriously excited now.

Data for 931 is just starting to show up on the tracking site. Shouldn't be long now - very excited!

Looks like it was only a short drive (3.5m SE)

Still, it should give us some slightly longer baselines to look at Victoria with.

Needs more tilt! Vicky might not be flat anymore, but she is definitely unbalanced.

Brian

New pancam image for today. We're a few meters closer.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...23P2378L2M1.JPG

Here's a flicker gif of today's movement:

Looks like more of the far rim is becoming visible (bright line just above the near rim).

And could that circular(ish) looking feature be Sofi?

Click to view attachment

James

James, based on your over/under pics, the bright line looks to me like the dunes at the bottom of Victoria. So this will be a different kind of big crater than we have seen before . . .

A bit more enhanced version. We're definitely seeing the plains over the near rim, but there is something very bright appearing over the edge.

A beautiful straight and long track: http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...23P1976R0M1.JPG

James, yes I have noticed that the recent pancam has shown the southwest white rim meanwhile the twin peaks has shown clearer. it might be due to a clear atmosphere (lower Tau).

Rodolfo

Oh, yeah! I can get excited about that kind of a crater. They also mentioned 30-40 meter cliffs. If Opportunity can access a significant fraction of that section, can you imagine the marathon science campaign that is about to start? I think there will be no need to imagine where this rover will go after Victoria. There is surely enough work here to fully occupy however many remaining sols this amazing rover has left. Thanks for that perspective, Asto0.

James, from my limited brain, I can't imagine that the bright feature is Sofi.
It's still half a kilometre away. Even from a raised vantage point, I doubt that Oppy's eyes are that good or that this quality of image would pick it out.
There is a small circular feature on the bright rim of VC that could be what we are seeing.
I could be wrong of course...you never say never.
Just a short drive until we know all the answers

Astro0

...it's the Beacon, which turns out to be bright dunes in the geometric center of Victoria. Arrrghhh.

--Bill

I've just done a quick check and I don't think it can be Sofi after all it's not big enough and in slightly the wrong place. Sofi should be nearly 3 degrees wide - that feature is only 0.4 degrees.

Here's where I think that feature is


Click to view attachment

James

There is a nice parallax between the near rim edge and the bright feature, which appears to be a bit further away from the edge.

Great work James. Same conclusion, different strategy. This is getting exciting!
I'm looking out my office window at the moment at the 70metre antenna.
We are currently downlinking from Odyssey. Not completely sure, but I think these new images are courtesy of us. Cool!

Enjoy
Astro0

I don't think so. Those bright lines are likely exposed evaporite on the near rim. There is simply no way we can see over the rim and down 70 meters from this perspective.

Sol 931 right pancam stitch

Click to view attachment

Dan: Did you mean far rim? I don't see how the bright bits appearing could be part of the near rim.

James

After looking at it 3D, I'm certain that the bright horizontal band is the far rim that's now becoming more and more visible.

Here's an x-eyed view:

I think the near rim slopes down and away. Any sand would also migrate downward leaving the evaporite exposed. I think that could be the near rim. Barring that I'll settle for the far rim, but it's certainly not the interior dunes.

Near Rim vs. Far Rim (deja-vu anyone?)

Here's a super-res image of the bright feature. There's too much detail there to simply be sand. This looks like a cliff the way light reflects off of it.

Today as the sol 932, no driving day!



Only doing pancam for Tau and sky surveys.

Rodolfo

Sure there are going to be some spectacular evaporite sections on the near rim. Problem is, todays drive only changes our veiwing angle of the near rim by (rough calculation) 0.04 degrees! I don't see how that much new near rim terrain could have been revealed (nothing on the inside with a gradent any more than ~1 degree!). On the far side however, todays drive could have revealed 30-40cm* of bright evaporite cliff.

So that could mean we're only seeing the top 1/100th of the far cliffs so far! This view is going to be so awsome.