This is a stretched version of the sol 2348 pan posted above.

Phil

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As much as I'd like to see Cape York, I'd caution here about that small-looking peak. My measurements indicate that it is too far North to be Cape York. From the location of sol 2348, Cape York should be to the South of the rimshot crater along this line of site. There is a however a bit of a slump on that far wall of Endurance that could account for this "peak".

(awesome image Phil, thanks).

Comparison between the 2348 pan and the GoogleMars view from the current location.
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The middle horizon appears to be the western rim of Endeavor.

ETA: looking at the rim from the other side I get the impression that Cape York won't be sticking above this horizon until we are quite close to it.

Here is a another one of my reprojections of the orbital HRSC image to match vertically with the pancams from our current location. The drive directions from 2348 & 2349 have been stacked to bring out details missing in the individual jpg's.

Version with lots of matching feature guide lines:
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Unlabelled version:
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James

Superb as ever James. You really do spoil us with these. I notice that what look like two small bumps on the parking lot near the right edge of that view do seem to line up rather well with specific bright features on the far rim, yet you haven't ventured to identify them as such. Is there a reason? Maybe the map elevations make it unlikely?

No, no reason I didn't look close to the edges where I hadn't stacked any images. There will be more images to add there when i get the chance which to make things clearer so I didn't look at that bit too closely, especially as it was getting late last night.

Sol 1987 vs Sol 2348...

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Amazing!!

4 or 5 90-day missions inbetwixt thos pixts -- wow!

You know Stu, I do believe that Sol 2348 photo qualifies a a "Heckuva View". The panorama has just been changing so slowly with Oppy's day to day progress, that we didn't really appreciate the view we have now, until we compare it to the view a year or so ago.

David

Whoa!

The crater on the rim looks strangely unaffected by the graininess otherwise apparent in the image, did you do some particular enhancement to that feature? Or am I just seeing things...

Don't think so, no... just messed about with carefully changed brightness and contrast and levels to make things easier to see...

Ok, great. An amazing image. Despite all the measurable progress it hadn't quite dawned on me that we are actually getting nearer the target... - Just like canoeing on a big lake (which I did in Denmark last week), you row and row and row and all you get for your trouble are some almost invisible small changes in the perspective of features on land. Only as you almost make landfall does the perspective suddenly begin to change dramatically. So, thanks for bringing out the "almost invisible small changes"!

Sol 1987 vs Sol 2348...

Holy smokes, Stu. You keep making my jaw drop.

Reading this whole thread, I hear "The Little Old Rover from Pasadena" playing over and over in my mind....



(Go, Oppy, go, Oppy, go Oppy go! )

Hehe. It was difficult to find a good version of that song on line. Here's one that's not too bad, with lyrics

Naming the features?

I looked at the stunning pictures of James Cavin today. Now I am wondering if we are seeing currently two horizons? Alan mentioned it at the 2nd September.

A Meridian bedrock - parking lot
B ? Which place are we seeing here?
C Plains behind Endeavour?
D Far crater wall of Endeavour

E Cape Tribulation
F cape Dromedary
G Iazu Ejecta
S Martian sky ...

I hope the naming of the labels is correct.

Currently I see some more horizontal lines. Has anyone any idea what we are seeing? Is the line between A and B real? Is this a near horizon, and the landscape is then going down and will rise again if it is reaching Endeavour? Or are we now already going downhill?

The transition from A to B is the same we saw before the Victoria annulus. Basically it's where the bedrock+ripples ends, and the true parking lot, like the Victoria Annulus, or the stretch from Eagle to Endurance, begins.

First animation of my life. It's the view of Endeavour north rim from sol 774 to 2356.
Hard time to go through all the pancams from Erebus and to find all images of the north rim.
Feel free to make comments so that i can improve the next animation.
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I prefer a bigger version (15Mo) with context and views on the plain or on Victoria, but i do not arrive to put it on an appropriate site (youtube, flickr). Sorry about that. I will try again next day.
OK, done but the quality is not as good as i want
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNyIZPPvGk0

Very Nice Animation Bill! . One improvement that I would recommend is to use the PDS imagery up until the last PDS release if possible, then switch to the raw JPG's up to the current Sol.

Thanks for your hard work Bill, I like the idea and the result.

That's a fantastic view. I also had the same idea, but no clue about how to do this. It is really looking cool!
Some ideas for improvement: Could it be possible to adapt the colors so that the animation will be much smoother?

Excellent job, Bill, especially love the YouTube version where you can see Endeavour AND Victoria Crater at the same time, really nice touch that.

I love this vid, Bill -- the shots from across Victoria are very dramatic in the context of this sequence. I actually like the differences in shading, and someday soon, you might add some new upcoming views and switch it to color as we get closer. I think about a piece of music that builds like Ravel's Bolero to accompany...

Here's a pancam mosaic made from the "drive-direction" shots taken on sol 2363 and 2364.
I'm wondering if the dark feature on the left-most image could be ... Santa Maria? At least it is more or less in the correct heading.
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The faraway hills of Endeavour are getting quite hypnotising now...

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That looks too far away to me - more like a far rim feature - though I could be misreading the view. When it does appear I'm expecting to see quite a bit of 'parking lot' extending beyond it.

My version of the Solander Point mosaic of Endeavour from yestersol.

I agree, it looks like a far rim feature to me and matches the heading of a suitable looking one. I think Santa Maria should appear further to the right, close to the left end of the large range of far rim peaks (4-5) degrees to the right of that feature.

I agree with ngunn and James. A few posts ago MoreInput made some identifications on the horizon that I agree with. The line between his regions A and B is I think a near horizon, so there's ground between A and B that we can't see yet because it's below the local horizon. I'd say this has to be the case because Santa Maria is still invisible.

That near horizon is much better defined in some L7/R1 images, such as this one:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...1M1.JPG?sol2365
It looks pretty clearly like a near horizon in this image, with the farther area B quite a bit lighter due to dust/haze along the longer line of sight. Because B is so much lighter, it must be much farther than A, so I think it's a big area we can't see.

At some point we'll see all of the surface between A and B, including Santa Maria, and that should make a HOAV...

When Santa Maria does appear it will be big. I estimate that it already subtends an angle of 3 degrees from our current location. If we're a good bit closer when it comes into view it will span a significant fraction of a pancam width.

Lots of cruddy L6 raws of the farside came down today. Had a bit of a stack and clean-up...

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Tiny difference, if any, but I wanted to give it a go. Interested in the light line across that farside crater, which hasn't shown - IIRC - on any other images...

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Probably an imaging artefact. Just caught my eye, that's all.

Hoping this sequence has been taken so the MER guys can make a hi-resolution version of the view, to be released at the same time as the name of that crater on the far slope. Really is about time they chose a name for that.

Do you mean Solander as in...Solander?

<cough> hey ustrax... are we there yet?

Just read the mer update...it says that hydrated minerals could be seen as close as Santa Maria...how much lower is opportunity downslope at this current position compared to the landing spot at eagle crater?

Could it be Cape York? I think at least it is on the proper heading.
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Original: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...QCP2439L2M1.JPG

I think that's a crater on the far rim - check out Canvin's identification here.

I am beginning to think that Cape York doesn't exist. It's just a large stain on the ground that has us all fooled.

Endeavour on sol 2424:

Any idea of what we are seeing on the horizon ?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...OXP2365R2M1.JPG
I presume that we can't see anymore from this place the SE-Miyamoto rim and especially during the dusty spring.

5X stretch of James' pan. By my guess-timation that little bump should be about on the heading of Cape York. Not saying it is, but it's in about the right place.

Come on Dan, we all know that Cape York is just a fairy tale, a myth... a make-believe place, like Narnia or Neverland...

A painting on my wall spilled sand and hematite berries out of it this afternoon and then swallowed me up.

I'd say a crater far away (several km) on the plains to the SSE.

I didn't have such a feeling to be this close.
I believe this is because we're going up to the crater ring!?
: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...OXP2365R2M3.JPG

My theory is that this is due to the chunks of ejecta visible in the mid-ground. The eye does not see and the mind may forget the large, flat expanse that lies beyond the last visible rock. At first glance, it looks like a short distance from Opportunity and the farthest piece of ejecta and an equally short distance from the last piece of ejecta to the rim of Endeavour.
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Not claiming this is particularly accurate or anything (although the Sun position is as close as I can get it with Starry Night) but here's a (future martian!) artist's impression of sunrise over Endeavour this morning on Mars...

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Stu : how beautiful !
I could not resist : from your work of art, here is "Impression Soleil Levant sur l'Entreprise" ("Endeavour" in French) as an Impressionist painting. Enjoy !
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Thank you dear Monet! I didn't see this version in Grand Palais...

Even though Vikingmars beat me to the punch, I could't resist!

If Pierre-Auguste Renoir were able to visit mars, maybe this would have been the result:
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or if just some 'artsy-fartsy' astronaut with some modified water colors:
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-- Pertinax