Well, what does everyone think of our long-awaited first view..?

I'm going to change the subject title...because, we're not quite there yet

Doug

It's all starting to make sense now!!

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Castor

A first (quick&dirty) navcam mosaic.

Click to view attachment

I know, I know, it'll be on Sol 960

how much is missing? 80m?

...and is that left front bit sticking out the beacon?

Updated version (red for promontories, blue for main gullys/ramps):

Click to view attachment

Castor

Man that's a scary place!...


If this is correct looks like we may be heading towards Cabo Verde...:
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/cvcf2.jpg

EDITED: Now lookin at it Cabo Frio may be on the far right of the image...

Don't think so, it should be on the right and closer to us but picts has not yet been downloaded.
BTW, Ustrax, I'm like you and I don't see what Doug's say it's on the rim of the crater. I may be wrong, it looks like "something" in sitting on the plain.

Does somebody has figured out the actual distance to the rim ?

Edited : yep, may be I see what Doug's saying.

The missing link...:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1968R0M1.JPG

What the other guys on the other side of the Ocean're doing?
BTW, hitting F5 get slooooow reaction : that's good eh!

What is that object to the left of the crater rim?

Good ! Beacon is nowhere to be see on the near rim!

You mean like Luke in his land speeder coming to say "Hi" to Oppy?

Click to view attachment

Sure seems to be kicking up a bit of dust behind the speeder.

It's the near rim edge rising, as said by Doug and others. The height difference between the rims is pretty big.

That should be a good place to park for a panorama!

(apology for the accidental alliteration)

I don't think we'll be ever going down into that puppy

Stretched pan:

Click to view attachment

It really shows how the far rim is much lower than the near rim, because Victoria formed on the slope of a broader depression.

Phil

Wahoo... trying to imagine the approach without the well-known satellite image - There must be just an Abyss in front of Oppy...

Looks like not yet that big from Oppys current position, but I "guess" it will get bigger and bigger...

This has the feeling of approaching the end of a quest; like Arthur's knights approaching the Grail Castle, or Frodo on the slopes of Mount Doom.

Speaking of grails, did you know that "crater" and "grail" have the same origin?

We are amused!

I agree with others, that "object" at the left end of the rim is a near-rim promontory - my guess is the beacon itself.

I did a quick calculation of the vertical extent of the very steep outcrop visible on the inner far rim, and I get about 10 metres! We're likely not seeing the full extent yet, of course.

A real cliffhanger

Great stretch Phil!

Anaglyph time;



Nico

Mine too.
It's not too bright on this shots because the jpeg is quite a bit saturated.

My quick NavCam stitch ...

WOW !

I must admit that the recent early/premature praise had made me anxious that the view could turn out to be not that dramatic as expected ... maybe a rather "shallow bowl" a la Boneville or something .... but *WOW* !!!
This first glimpse over the edge is even better than I expected !!!

Nirgal
*speechless*

A CNN article (over TWO YEARS AGO!) referred to a portion of the entry into Endurance as a black diamond slope.
A bit of an exaggeration at the time, I would say. But what we see of Victoria so far is NOTHING BUT black diamond slopes! I hope the entry ramp(s) on the near side are more benign.

On the plus side the details of the far side are more clear (and with just navcam images!) than I had hoped they would be.

If we're going into that crater I don't think we're coming out, that is STEEP!

- Much more dramatic slopes than I expected.

- When can we expect the pancam images? - Soon? Huh? Huh? (sorry....)

It doesn't look like there's much margin for error at the edges from here. Definitely mountain goat type stuff, but I'm sure the drivers are up to it!

So let me get this straight, the far rim is 750 meters or more away ?

You have that right.

Doug

You have me imagining an amazing view from the far side.

That's Rodolfo and his family in their off-road truck.

This reminds me of Sarlacc! (Star Wars monster-mouth in the desert...)

Pancams... I need pancams...

Earlier today Sunspot wrote :
"There won't be another picture update at the exploratorium/pancam site until the 21st of September."
. I like your previsions ....

Damnit, I missed the party by about 2 hours....

How many treads do we get going here now?????

The party has only just begun, don't worry



Nico

All I can say is "Holy Zarqon's Singing Fish!" (I hope Oppy won't be relying on foul-smelling birds to save her from plummeting to the ground )




Superb work as always Phil. Your stretched pan also clearly shows that we're *not* seeing the full diameter; the left and right sides are obscured by the rising headlands. That image (the drive direction?) is pointed straight at the middle of the nearest boat ramp.

I'm not surprised by the apparent steepness - the orbital imagery makes it pretty clear that there are near-vertical cliffs around every headland. The $200m question is over the steepness of the ramps / gullies (and the type of surface.) Actually that seems to be the first and only time I've been anything other than 1000% wrong about Oppy's future. Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day, etc etc )

And a polar version... derived from Nix's pan.

Click to view attachment

Phil

Good! I was in a rush to go out for a science meeting and got a bit ahead of myself, sorry!

Now I'm back with THREE PAGES of postings to catch up on!!

The size of the rock on the left seems to be approximately 2 m.

Oh yes, I would say the party hasn't even started yet, and the guests are only beginning to show up at the door.

Nice projection, Nico, I'm not sure exactly what you did there but it's cool.

Imipak, I wonder if I'm the only other person here who gets the reference to the Bird People of Brontitol. :-)

Here is a 90 degree perspective projection facing east. I'm waiting for the other two Navcam image pairs to show up in the tracking data, but the very good news is that the tracking data is updating.

Nico,

Apologies if you're bandwidth goes up - I inadventently hotlinked your image here ...

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/co...ts/cover_for_me

Regarding the raised rim on the left that some of us thought was "something" sitting on the plain/apron. On stretched pictures, it looks now like a vertical wall on the exterior of the crater. I understand the definition is still poor because of the distance + been taken by the navcams, anyway could this be in the order of one meter range (3-4 feet)? Is this that Tesheiner and others (?) said it could be beacon ?

Here is the complete view from Victoria.

Taken with the L0 navcam on Sol 943.

jvandriel

I think Oppy is going to approach this crater edge very very carefully.

To put things in perspective, this remind me of Ordessa (Spain) :
View 100 m from the "rim" :
Click to view attachment
View from "Cape Verde" :
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Imagine we'll have the same contrast in a few days