In the latest daily update for the rovers, it mentions making observations of the Heatshield:

"On sol 24, which ended at 10:59 p.m. Tuesday, PST, Opportunity used science instruments on its robotic arm to examine the hole it dug with its right front wheel on sol 23. The trench is about 50 centimeters (20 inches) long by 20 centimeters (8 inches) wide by 10 centimeters (4 inches) deep.

Sol 24's wake-up music was "Trench Town Rock" by Bob Marley.

The plan for sol 25, which will end at 11:38 p.m. Wednesday, PST, is to continue examining the walls and floor of the trench for clues about the history of Mars. Opportunity will also peek at its right front wheel with the panoramic camera to see what materials got stuck on the wheel from the trenching activity. Then, Opportunity will use the panoramic camera high on the rover's mast to check out a former piece of itself -- the heat shield, which is sitting off in the distance. The heat shield protected the rover during cruise and during descent through the atmosphere on Jan. 4, 2004, PST."

In which image does this object appear?... any ideas?

It must be a mistake - the heatshield impacted near the large crater at a very high velocity. There would be almost nothing left of it, and I image it would be too far away to see.

They must mean the backshell.

Here's the MGS overview of the immediate area: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...bels-B016R1.jpg

Perhaps you're right, I did wonder if they actaully meant to say the backshell instead, although what they could learn from it I dont know. But on the other hand, the heatshield seems to have made quite an impact on the surface judging from that image.

No reason why they cant image it to be honest, it's about 800m ESE of the lander - and has created a hell of dark impact mark. It's twice as distant as the backshell and parachute, sure, but the backshell is very visible, so I'd imagine the backshell impact might be visible as well. It may be that that the dark material is highly visible in one of the pancam's filters as well. The only thing it lacks is height - which may make it little more than 1 pixel's worth of feature in height.

Doug