Never mind solar conjunction. What happens after mission termination? Some of these guys may need therapy sessions or withdrawal counseling

But Oppy, sweetheart, dearest, for the love of god, will you move! Just a little bit! The same view for two days!! Two days of constantly checking Exploratorium for new images (earlier today: after yet another F5 press two ****** thumbnail images of the Sun appear! The sun!!! ) and not seeing an inch further over the edge! This is just cruel...!!!

Good point, I've been thinking something along those lines as well. Awhile back (Post #136), climber jokingly mentioned what looked like caves on the far side of Victoria. From a distance, they do indeed look a lot like remnant sea caves, very similar to some I've seen in the Callahan Divide of the Edwards Plateau in West Texas (the Callahan Divide was apparently once an island when the sea level was higher). Then there's that nice horizontal line visible near the base of the evaporite layer; I know it sounds hokey, but could that perhaps be a remant shoreline? Considering that we know that the ground in Meridiani was once wet, mightn't that suggest that ground water would translate into surface water in a depression such as Victoria? Realistically, any open water would have almost certainly been topped by a layer of ice, so the apparent "sea caves" would have to form by some process other than wave action (perhaps sapping?). Sheer speculation, but the first good view over the rim could be interesting.

When Exploratorium updates it usually happens at 35 minutes after the hour.

Tall vertical cliffs strongly indicate that a large volume of debris has just disappeared from the scene as the cliffs formed.

... besides, part of me - a cruel, masochistic part - enjoys the thrill of the hunt, experiencing that "yes!!" moment when you see a new untouched line at the bottom of the Exploratorium page written in come-get-me blue... )

Perhaps the racetrack patterns induced by heating effects in craters are counter to Mars' rotation in the mornings, thereby less likely to cause dust devils, but become synced with Mar's coriolis effect to end up with reinforced rotation patterns and free-standing dust devils in the afternoons?
-the other Doug

climber jokingly mentioned what looked like caves on the far side of Victoria.

Spirit is clearly in Southern Hemisphere while Spirit

?????

The JPL version of the pancam of Victoria has been posted!

In re the effect of craters on wind patterns -- recall that craters undergo regular cycles of differential heatng and cooling, too. As the sun rises, it heats the eastward-facing slopes of the crater more than the surrounding terrain, and much more than the shadowed west-facing crater slopes.

Air rises over the heated slopes and sinks over the shadowed slopes. The bowl shape of the crater encourages a vortex-like pattern of airflow, making it racetrack within the crater itself.

Now, as the day progresses, the prevailing winds of the area pass over this crater. The racetrack pattern pulls up and involves this wind in its little circulation pattern, causing a local intensification of wind around and inside the crater. In some cases, this causes a much higher column of rotating air than you get from the crater heating effects along, a pattern that can sustain itself for several minutes. As the air mass that contains this vortex moves along, the newly-born dust devil departs the crater and wanders out onto the adjacent terrain.

I would think it possible that morning heating would produce one rotation vector, and afternoon heating would produce another, perhaps opposite, vector....

-the other Doug

Well it isn't a chunk of ejectra, but rather the rim of a bay as can be seen in the JPL hi-res Pancam

However, just to pass the time, here is the direction of that dark patch on the Themis:
...
I doubt we could see that old eroded crater that's many km's away, I've marked a much closer dark feature in that direction that could be what we see.

Pando has way to much fun with his drawing and photo software
ustrax is trying to find another abyss

and Me keeps waiting for new images on exploratorium to show up

anything to expect for this weekend or can I go do other things?!

I must admit, Pando had me thinking we had gotten to the rim! I was disappointed - I thought, gee, there's almost nothing visible below the rim cliffs...the whole crater is blanketed by sand! I only realized it was a fake when an hour had passed since the posting and no one else had posted any rim panoramas.

Great job, Pando!!

As always, this shows that things are closer and smaller than you may have guessed. Also notice how the men on the far rim really give a sense of the immense gap before us.

I would be more inclined to bet that our azimuth pointing is a hair off and what we're seeing is this feature (cyan circle). Notice that it is apparently large enough to have its own dune field. The image off in that direction is lower resolution than on the left, otherwise I think it would stand out nearly as distinctly as Victoria:
Click to view attachment

Also notice how the men on the far rim really give a sense of the immense gap before us.

As always, this shows that things are closer and smaller than you may have guessed. Also notice how the men on the far rim really give a sense of the immense gap before us.