I think you're right Tesh, there's a LOT of stuff on that far horizon now...

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Great anaglyphs, Stu!

Bet they'll just name the ridge & the more intriguing rocks, though. Also wonder if we might be looking at the major regional cobble source.

Great that the south horizon is opening up again, however we have seen all of Iazu before - it is the Endeavour direction that we could do with seeing more of.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=145461

Wow, I'd forgotten that stunning view James, thanks for reminding us.

Guess we've all been getting a bit flat-horizon-endless-dunes-horse-with-no-name-weary recently. It'll be good when we start down that slope.

So, here is the Sol 2131 color view :


This is a great place, can't wait to be more closer to Conception.

Very nice Ant!
I think I'll change my desktop picture soon... this place and what's ahead are very exiting.

Did anyone mention the magic word? "Names"?...
The Concepción was burned on the island of Bohol, that's one cool name isn't it?...And the island as its own nice places...like Chocolate Hills...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohol_(island)
It has also 47 Municipalities that can be used...you just have to pick the right one...
http://www.bohol.gov.ph/profile.html
I love these days of wind on our sails!!!

Perhaps because the pancams got downlinked too late and the drive had to be planned based only on navcams. My 2c.
Same may happen for the next drive; I don't see any planned for thisol.

You hit 3000 posts , Eduardo, 3000

Oh boy! I'm becoming part of the furniture...

Oh no - now you spoiled it!

Phil

Time for a long baseline anaglyph of Iazu?

Thanks

Maybe now you can ?

I get to answer my own question. From the latest Oppy update:

I had a feeling something like that was up...

Also, from the same update:

Wow. I think I estimated much older in an earlier thread.

Finally:

I'd be curious to know why 1000 years and not 100 years or even 20.

Done, thanks !
I'm also very happy with the news reported by fredk

I don't know for sure, but we've seen quite a few craters form in the last decade in MOC, CTX and HiRISE images, so an assessment of how rapidly the ejecta fades may be behind the estimate.

Phil

Thanks Fourmi, now I'm really on Mars !
Great & inspiring image... Your work deserves 5 wheels !

One of your best, Ant, absolutely beautiful.

The next few weeks and months are going to be among the most exciting of Oppy's whole adventure, I think.

WAG here, but that might be an estimate based on observed erosion/deposition rates...probably an upper limit.

I'm also very curious about how they came up with that 1000 year figure. In a previous post, I made an estimate of the age of Conception based on reported cratering rates from MOC. My estimate was a million years for the age. That would mean Conception is a huge anomaly if it were just 1000 years old (ie we were really, really lucky to come across a crater so fresh), unless the reported cratering rates are way off.

Just from the dark ejecta I'd say this thing is younger rather than older. When I look at the MOC images of fresh craters identified since Viking I'd say Conception is closer to them in "freshness" appearance. Meridiani has a lot of fine particles moving back and forth and the rover tracks do get covered up over time as we have seen .

This is why I hope we continue to acquire frequent HIRISE images of the familiar terrain until there is no observable trace of ANY Rover tracks. With all of the tracks and the detailed data we have on which tracks were left, and when, I suspect there is a useful study in the making toward the goal of constructing a methodology for dating recent Meridiani features.

I've always wanted to use this expression "before a live audience"...Goddamn!!!
That has definitely put me back on Mars!!

Wow, thanks a LOT guys for appreciate my picture ! It's an unawait surprise. Happy to know that you like it

Yes, Ant, fantastic, just like that first view of Endurance Crater/Burns Cliff which Ustrax recently posted -- the red deserts of Mars punctuated by some mysterious, human-scale topography . . .

Just got word from our beloved MC, the suggestion was approved, a Mars bar anyone?

You deserve a whole box of those, Rui.

The new Pancams are up.
Here is a 'Stookian' stretch of Yazu crater to the south (4x vertical)
(contrast adjusted, but jpg artifacts rule!) Cheers

Click to view attachment

EDIT: swapped out BMP for JPG (arg!)

Closer

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Rocks, rocks - oh, and a few more rocks!

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I propose naming one for every Portuguese sailor who explored the seas in the 17th century.

Stu, I don't know if you noticed or not, but there's a whole bunch of rocks over there!

Amazing. It looks exactly like what's left of an asphalt parking lot during an excavation.

Right, I'm off to take a closer look. Who's coming with me?

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Caution: please, no-one try "hill spotting" on that horizon. There will be some crud on it because I do this for fun; I'm no Ant, James or Astro0!

Very nice anaglyph Stu, we can see very distinctly the "ring" of the crater

So, the sol 2133 color pan

And navcam

Hmmm, looks like the perfect gift for a certan Mars Rover lover I know...
Happy BirthSOL you poet dude!!!
Let me give you one of ustrax's hugs, come here! Don't run away! Watch that...!...crater...

That's a nice sonar picture from Loch Ness...

Recent Drive Direction mosaics.

(all link to the same post)

2128


2130


2131


2133



James

Can't resist to made this, an anaglyph of the last drive direction pan of Sol 2133 (beacause it's more complex to produce and heavy to upload… and because my website is going to its limits in term of size)


James, very nice pics Especially the last

Just been playing around with Google Earth and thought this may interest some here.

It is at the limit of the the GE elevation data but I think this is a match. The pancams are at 3x stretch and I have GE with 3x vertical exaggeration as well. For orientation, the 'bright' bits on the GE image (middle and right) are bits of the interior of Iazu.

Click to view attachment

James

Fantastic anaglyph! from this it does look as though the crater is right on top of a local high point. The vista seems to sweep away beyond it for some considerable distance. I know we have even better views to look forward to but this isn't bad.

EDIT Big thanks also to James. BTW I requested a long baseline Iazu anaglyph several posts ago (hoping to distinguish near and far rims) but I know how things get missed.

It didn't get missed.

Here's a long baseline view of Iazu, from sols 1987 and 2133, with 3x vertical stretch as well as considerable pixel value stretch to bring out the rim better:
Click to view attachment
You can pretty clearly make out what's near and what's far rim. I've marked them on this view from 2133 - white arrows indicate near rim features, and black arrows far. I'm not sure how well this fits with James' GE view:
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Great! (But unfortunately that one has the colour-changing problem in IE so I'll have to wait till I get home before I can view it properly.)

While we wait for genuine views of the crater to come in, here's a completely made-up, not-accurate-at-all, Sun's-in-the-wrong-place-but-I-don't-care-it's-just-a-pretty-picture-ok?!?! visualisation of Concepcion...

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Looks awesome, Stu! I liked that picture alot!

I wonder, if they follow the predicted route (seen on the previous maps), how much time would it take it get to Endeavour at this rate?
Would 2 Earth-years be a good guess?

I keep hearing slightly more than 1 year being cited as a likely ETA, but of course that's going to depend on many things (enroute science, drive system health, terrain, etc.)

I'm very wary of this becoming a sweepstake and thus incurring the wrath of senior figures within the forum but I would suggest we could still be nearly 3 years away from endeavour. 2 reasons to support this.

1 - In an article referenced previously on this subject it noted how Opportunity had set a new distance travelled record in 2009 of 3.6 miles but was still 10 miles away from the target.

2 - Given the travails of Spirit I can't help feeling Opportunity will become an even more precious item (now effectively our only rover) and thus a more cautious strategy could be implemented.

But I will gladly be corrected!

So far, the progress toward Endeavour has not been aimed at the crater's direction, but rather, more south. This is to avoid the ripples to the East and South-East of Victoria. Not long after Conception, Opportunity can then head straight for Endeavour. Though you may well be right with your timeframe, depending on how long Opportunity stays at interesting targets.
I'm going to guess that Spirit's situation won't reflect further on how Opportunity is used. At least that is what I am hoping. They are already being careful with it as the right-front wheel showed some anomalies that resembled Spirit's before she lost that wheel. They let Opportunity's right-front wheel rest every so often.

<pseudo admin on>
This is the map thread, discussions belong in the Post Marquette Island thread.
<pseudo admin off>

AGREED AND MOVED THIS AND THE PREVIOUS FOUR POSTS - ADMIN

I'm a distance fan, but lickin' my chops at all the rocks ahead!