MHoward, one of the first things I read when I wanted try an make 3d anaglyphs is that you need to crop the parts of the images that don't overlap as it distracts the eyes and makes it harder to see the 3d effect.

I'm not sure which software package you're using, but here's a link to the tutorial I used for Adobe...Making Anaglyph Images in Adobe Photoshop

I love the fact that we can make anaglyphs from the rover images...here's one from Spirit on Sol 288

Eric P / MizarKey

It's a long story on why I do the anaglyphs that way... suffice it to say I was not doing any image editing but was only trying to present a "first look" as the images became availabe. I will discontinue posting these here. Thanks for the feedback.

Edit: To be clear, I automate anaglyph generation, that's why I wasn't doing any "image editing". I will incorporate your suggestion in future versions, though, if practical, so thanks.

Hey, does it look like some wetness precipitated off the shield onto the sand below causing it to compact...towards the upper left side of the image?

It reminds me of the 'mud' around both landers, though, with the landers it was the airbags being drug across that left the wet like residue.

It could be that frost has formed from time to time and if the conditions are right melts down the shield to drip onto the dust below???

Eric P / MizarKey

Interesting! I thought that actively blowing dust might also be an explanation, but the pattern is same in both the left and right images.

When the shield fragment plopped down, might it have blown some of the dust out of the way? Even so, it would be hard to explain the boundary that's so clear in the lower part of the image. There are some streaks in the upper part of the image that seem to streak away from the middle of the image.

I suspect that the "muddy"-looking surface we're seeing there (there's an identical area on the near edge of the landing impact crater in its photos) is really just an area where the shield's impact crushed and powderized the Blueberries into fine hematite dust -- which would, by the way, also have turned red. (The color photos of the shield site show just such red coloration in the areas where the shield hit the surface -- just as we see when the RAT grinds up Blueberries into red powder.)

Six frames of L7 imagery

Doug

MI pictures of the heatshield are in:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...ger/2005-01-01/

From space.com

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/roverdebris_041231.html

"We have circled around to a secondary debris site we are calling the ‘flank piece’", noted Christine Szalai, JPL’s leader of the heat shield observations team. "These are some pieces that broke off of the main heat shield after impact," she told SPACE.com.

Szalai said that a set of "interesting targets" have been identified – targets to home in on with the rover’s Microscopic Imager for carrying out fracture cross-section looks this weekend.

"This data will hopefully tell us the char depth through the thickness of the thermal protection system material. After we are done with this investigation, we are going to continue the spiral to survey the main heat shield and come in close to obtain more imaging data," Szalai explained.

Following its foray into the swath of discarded hardware, where next for Opportunity?

Steve Squyres, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover program from Cornell University, said the robot has a very tough next assignment. The driving objective for Opportunity is etched terrain to the south of Endurance crater – a large impact feature in which the robot recently completed six months of rewarding science work.

"The distance we'll have to cover to reach the etched terrain is something like three kilometers [some two miles], so it's a very aggressive goal. If we can reach the etched terrain, we expect that exploring it will take a substantial amount of effort and time," Squyres told SPACE.com.

"We don't currently know whether or not it will be possible to traverse a significant distance into the etched terrain. From orbit it appears to be pretty rugged stuff, so it may represent an impenetrable barrier to further southward exploration. We'll see when we get there," Squyres advised.

On the far side of that etched terrain is the huge Victoria crater. Chances of the rover reaching that geological paradise of a hole in the ground "are probably not good," Squyres said. "But if we did somehow manage to make it across the etched terrain, Victoria would be a very exciting next objective," he added.

Squyres said that next week, he will discuss "an interesting intermediate goal" -- something on the path from the heat shield to the etched terrain -- at a Mars Exploration Rover press briefing.

Let's hope he's speaking of Monday's briefing.

They may do some crater-hopping not only for the science value of it, but also for the favorable tilt they may experience on the slopes, especially during dust storms...

One assumes they mean vostok crater ?

Doug