Pancam view of the NE rim.
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Here is the complete Sol 2451 L0 Navcam view.

Jan van Driel

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I'm just wondering why the northern rim looks so different from the rest of the crater wall...seems to be less eroded and better preserved.The darker dunes on this side of the crater seem to be indicative of prevailing wind conditions and erosion??

Well the first full frame is nice...

I'm travelling (in Vancouver) so only sporadically checking in, but these pics are great. Thanks everybody!

Phil

The way the rocky broken-up crust delimits the smooth slope is remarkable. Never quite saw anything like it. Mars throws us another curve-ball...

That is excellent, thanks James!

Going back in the mission, I'm sure there must be many other b/w images that could benefit from the same treatment.

Thanks so much for this preview of Santa Maria in all its glory.

The only reason that treatment made sense here is that we're still waiting for the full pancam frames to come down. Once they are - that composite of thumbnail-color over full frame Navcam will be rendered redundant by the full frame Pancam color.

But haven't we sometimes moved along before a full-colour set was in? I seem to remember that happening many times.

Just a thought for the glossy full-colour coffee-table book that UMSF will edit and sell after the mission is over. (I had the idea first!)

Could cover the running costs of the web site for a couple of decades...

If there's thumbnails to color the Navcam with, it means the full Pancam is on the way (as is the case with this observation)

The UMSF book idea has been around for pretty much as long as UMSF has been around.

I think that AmateurSpaceImages.com will be the UMSF virtual coffee-table book.

I love the receding plane in this anaglyph, especially when you move several feet back from the screen, putting it more in perspective, as if standing on the other side of the crater looking across. (I might be fooling myself, but I think I can see the depression/ancient crater that is to the east of S.M....?)

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Wonderfully convoluted Mars rocks:
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and nicely framed crumbling rocks:
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Partial Pancam view on Sol 2452.
Taken with the L2 Pancam.

Jan van Driel

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Light sand in the bottom and dark sand up the sides!

Great pics everyone. Looking forward to the hi-res colour views. In the meantime, a couple of my colourisations...

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Lots more new stuff at: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/catching-up

After gazing around the crater "Santa Maria", what strikes me the most is the leveling flat rocks on the edges. I have no idea how these could be modeled to give a fairly smoothed surface without major herring. Perhaps, it may be due to wind erosion after eons years. That is my only possible assumption.

Very incomplete color pan of the Sol 2453.

Next very interesting pancam imaging sequence must wait for transmision.
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Sol 2456 - pancam_Santa_Maria_Palos_LBS1_pos2a_L2R2

Probably programming those images into the navigation "KEEP OUT" zone.

The drama! - This is chiaroscuro and Caspar David Friedrich all mixed up in one fabulous image.

Actually I think that Jim Bell should be encouraged to bring out part 2 of Postcards From Mars. That work was spectacular.

Have we seen "bleeding" patterns before like these?
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They remind me of something, perhaps in Victoria? Presumably they're streaks of dust running out of the outcrop.

They look a bit like these:
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007962_2635

Some really lovely detail visible over on that opposite side now...

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There appears to be a gust of wind just below the right side of the horizon in this L5 frame:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...5M1.JPG?sol2453
It's not visible in the other frames just before or after the L5, eg
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M1.JPG?sol2453
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...7M1.JPG?sol2453
Gusts are always welcome!

Very well spotted!

Good spot. I think the dust are debris from above rock fissures due to its rock color (dark).

Those 'bleeding patterns' look to me very much like features we saw in LROC images of fresh lunar crater walls. Quite a few examples showed up right here on UMSF, I think. I'm not saying they are identical, they just look similar. On the Moon I would have expected them to be made of fine dust, but here fine dust would blow away, so maybe it has to be a larger grain size.

Phil

I know people had a crack at the 2411 sunset and 2415 Phobos transit back when it was still "on to Santa Maria", but I thought I'd put in a plug for these: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=953, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=955.

Using Stu's image, the foreground (circled blue) seems to show dark grains trapped in crevasses. I think the dark streaks in the background (yellow circle) are the same. They may appear to be downfalls (rivulets) of dust but probably are dark grains blown into crevasses over time, just like in the foreground.
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The area marked in yellow seems partly hollow, as if only the hematite duricrust that surrounded the blocks was left behind and was being eroded now.

Almost complete.

The Pancam panoramic view of Santa Maria
taken on Sol 2453 with the L0 Pancam.

Jan van Driel

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I've never heard of this. I thought the hematite was only found in the berries.

Don't turn around, but there seems to be some kind of enormous petrified martian falcon... thing... slowly breaking out of the wall of Santa Maria...

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Well, whatever this coating was made of.
http://geology.com/nasa/mars-mystery-rock/

Maybe going after that lizard at VC, Stu.

FYI: link to my newest Rover article at Universe Today. Merry Christmas from Mars ! ken

Opportunity shoots Awesome Views of Santa Maria Crater‎
http://www.universetoday.com/81838/opportu...a-maria-crater/

includes mosaics from Sols 2451 to 2454 by several UMSF members Marco, Jan, James & Ken

new from Marco & Ken (reduced in size)

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Thank you Deimos, that is beautiful work. The Phobos transit is particularly evocitive!

-- Pertinax

Stu's new discovery of a Feathered Dinosaur deserves a name. Should we call it a Stuosaurus???

I had a nice time stitching this color panorama.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907406@N08/...577247/sizes/l/

That is very nice, KrisK. When they fill in those data dropouts, that will become quite an amazing view. Keep up the good work.

Pancam view Sol 2453 L2.

Added 9 images.
Quality is poor due to strong compression.
The original pano is 19.128 MB.

Jan van Driel

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Merry Christmas UMSF! While the sprouts are boiling, here's a partial panorama of Santa Maria from pancam L2 images.

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This image took 9 tries, but finally came through complete.

Somehow appropriate that we're at Santa Maria, even though it's named for a boat.

Feliz Navidad!

Is it just my imagination, or is there actually an unusual profusion of hematite nodules (blueberries) around here? I'm wondering whether this relates to the "bleeding" effect on the far side.

Santa Maria Partial Panorama Sol 2453 L2.

Added 6 images and still not complete.
The quality is a little better now due to
another way of compression.
The original image is 22 MB.

Jan van Driel

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Another pancam L2 pano.
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Because its Christmas.

Jan van Driel

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