Conjuction is February 4th, so assuming we arrive at Santa Maria by the end of this week, and taking the blackout period to last about a week after conjunction (it's actually not sharply defined), that gives us 8 weeks to spend at Santa Maria. Let's hope there's something interesting there!

If it's just the same old meridiani bedrock, I suppose they may just decide to drive off after the holidays. That'd give us a few weeks headstart on the drive to Endeavour. Although then they'd have to sit somewhere even more uninteresting over conjunction.

Probably but maybe not necessarily? I'm still wondering what this area is, and it's just to the southeast now. (Three years later and here we are. Wow.)

I was hoping for this. A fourth panel to complete the left end of the magnificent whole-body Santa Maria portrait has arrived: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2NP2360R2M1.JPG

Nobody can complain about the rate of forward progress of late and I like talk of lots of data. Is there still a chance of a colour version?

Nice. I haven't done an actual stitch for a while:

Full length version of the Santa Maria portrait...

http://twitpic.com/3fo75f/full

Despite trying I can't get rid of the dark areas betwen frames, unlike others here do, but pleased with this anyway, and looking forward to all your cleaned-up versions :-)

Its amazing how quickly Santa Maria has appeared. A few weeks ago it was just a tiny vague feature in the pancam images.

Did you notice the Mars Globe on the Sundial? (from this image: 1N345428754EFFAZ2NP0653R0M1.JPG)
Click to view attachment

VERY nice, and thanks for letting me use it as the new header on my blog!

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com

This is entirely coincidental discolouring of the pancam calibration target over the course of the mission.

Here's the sun dial as brand new:
http://www.astrobio.net/articles/images/sull_sundialg.jpg

Before the final approach, a regional anaglyph of the environment (1/4 of full size) might be of some interest. It's evident that Santa Maria is located on the (near) slope of a basin, probably an ancient double crater, and thus is tilted away from us. At the lower right part of the unusual terrain is visible.

Oh, I know! But I do like the coincidence.

It will be interesting to see that close up. Notice how there are several of what look like heavily eroded craters in the dark stuff, with the insides of the craters lighter, like the surrounding plains.

And, since we should turn to the SE after Santa Maria to head towards Cape York, it's a good bet we'll drive right through some of those dark areas.

That's very nice - thanks for the anaglyph. You can also get a good sense of the basin and Santa Maria's position on the near slope from Phil's recent stretch.

According to MER Pancam Data Tracking Web Interface there was another 100 meters drive today!!!

I can't wait to see how SM looks from less than 100 meters now!

Stu,

after downloading and before stitching, use an Anti-Vignetting programme to remove most of the dark
areas.
I use MRCAntiVignetting.

Jan van Driel

I just make a rectangular selection around the bright central area, feather it about 100 pixels, select inverse (area outside original selection) and brighten until I'm satisfied.

Phil

From Scott Maxwell's Twitter: "Thisol's drive should leave us ~ 20m from the edge of Santa Maria. Woo-hoo! "

That's interesting, Phil. But given the axially symmetric optics, would it perhaps be better to make a circular selection centred at the centre of the frame?

Can somebody tell me approximately how far Oppy was from Santa Maria at the time of the sol 2447 pan?

200 m

Is the clock/time on the MER website still accurate?

I think we are somewhere around HERE ↓↓↓↓↓

Click to view attachment

This is my first time to do route map so please don't laugh.

And from Scott's tweet, 2450 should be 20 m from edge.

Hey Scott, STOP!!!

You're right Dan, they don't even have time to send any pictures.

fredk: "That's interesting, Phil. But given the axially symmetric optics, would it perhaps be better to make a circular selection centred at the centre of the frame?"

By the time I've feathered the selection that much, it wouldn't matter if I started with a triangle! Actually, you're right, I do use a circle sometimes. And sometimes I just select the two edges as vertical rectangles. Rampant ad-hoccery is my guiding principle. Hey - that's a good line for my new sig!

Phil

From Scott: Current position with respect to Santa Maria: "About 90m. So close we can taste it. Planning ~ 70m thisol; probably will do fine approach nextersol."

20 meters? Wow that's past those two large boulders. Here's what 20 meters from the edge roughly consists of.

Any Pictures yet from 20 meters away??? Waiting

Those look like pretty reasonable locations to me.

Bobby: we're currently 90 metres away. Pictures still due. Next drive planned to get us to 20 m.

No, it's way out. Use this site.

OOOhhhh...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M2.JPG?sol2449

More dinosaur brains?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M1.JPG?sol2449

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! Not fair!!!! I'm at work, sneaking a look on my phone so I can't join in the rockhound fun!

We're not there yet Stu... coming days/weeks very exciting!

What he means is,

Wow! These are the best images from either rover over their entire mission! Absolutely spectacular! It's a shame you can't see them

Oh, I can *see* them, they're just <---- this ----> big!!!!!!

They look like petrified trees to my eyes

My fast compilation.
Click to view attachment
Note "zero phase angle effect".

Apart from some little pockmarks like Concepcion and Fram, this is the first real ejecta deposit we've seen at Meridiani. Great place to stop for a shortish break! A full panorama would be really nice.

Phil

Yep. I wonder if they'll take the chance to climb (even partialy) on the mount on the left. This is the place for the HOV we're looking for.

Close-up on Santa Maria (I tried to remove some noise in the images).
Click to view attachment

That big "boulder" on the right is obviously a crashed tie-fighter.

I think those round objects are bantha droppings.

Somehow, when I look at these latest pictures I have to think about Sojourner.

Gorgeous pics everyone...

Some fascinating looking rocks over there...

Click to view attachment

Looks like the Easter Islanders beat us to it
Click to view attachment
Mike

Whoa! That Rock looks HUGE!

Any ideas how Big?

Wopmay 2.0