That's terrific Jack!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

Loving Oppy's view now...

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What's Boxing Day without staring into a gaping hole in the ground on another planet, in 3D?
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To help celebrate our arrival at Santa Maria, the most impressive topography since Victoria, the remarkably timid Mystery Men have come out of hiding to greet us once more. They should help to give a sense of scale to the scene - each man is 2 metres tall from foot to top of waving hand. Distances are calculated from the orbital images. The panorama is James's superb navcam + thumbnail colour.
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I for one welcome the return of our Mysterious overlords!

Thanks, Fred; always love these!!!

Thanks Fred. We really need MM to pay a visit whenever we have a new vista like this. Glad to see he's got his whole family visiting for the Holidays. Even his French cousins the Mystery Climbers have arrived.

Those Mystery Men look suspiciously familiar.

Santa Maria on Sol 2453 en 2454.
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Very strong compression.

Jan van Driel

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There were some along Burns Cliff
http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_ins...scliff_new.html
http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_ins..._L257_pos_3.jpg
http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_ins..._L256_pos_3.jpg

That's it! Thanks, Alan, I knew we'd seen something similar before. Looking closely, you can see that most of the dark "bleeding" streaks are associated with cracks, but some aren't - they're just dark dust spilling down from above.

CosmicRocker - I have been known to wear a similar hat...

Sol 2462

The Navcam L0 view on Sol 2462.

Jan van Driel

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At last, I've figured out what makes Santa Maria such a striking and attractive place...

...finally, FINALLY, we have a proper crater, a crater with a raised rim that looks just like the craters we used to draw as kids, and see on the TV...!!

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Thanks Michael !

IMO, this (especially the anaglyph version) is among the most beautiful/epic MER panorama vistas yet.... with the bizarre rock-gardens strewn accross the elevated, rugged crater rim, lonely rover tracks and the Endeavour silhouette looming in the hazy background.... phantastic

Here's MHoward's mosaic in polar form.
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I thought so too; that's why I couldn't resist doing the anaglyph.

Like everyone else I was blown away by this image Mike, but it had that "driving in a parking garage" feel that was distracting from the full effect. So I created a synthetic sky using random red and blue noise to subtly tie in with the rest of the anaglyph.

(This is half resolution, if anyone wants the full res version let me know)

Good point - I was rushing to finish it last night, and forgot about the sky. I went back and did a simple fill in my version, but yours is much better.

My unfinished version of the Santa Maria panorama. Still some data dropouts, and a missing image. Boy what a great place!

Hi from French cousins...a sense of scale is nice to have from time to time
Fred, I can't distinguish the Mystery men at Endeavour's but, well, I hope climbers will be usefull once there.

Absolutely loving the chaotic rock walls and spills here...

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I also like the fine details within the dunes.
BTW, what the hell Darth Vader's doing there?

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Hi Climber. Darth Vader is saying this: "I sense something, a presence I've not felt since......."
and as soon as he see's Santa Marie. He says: "The force is strong with this one."

I know probably that the rover drivers are having a well desereved xmas break but when do we get moving again??Cant wait to get to the opposite wall where the water bearing sulphate rocks are !

The Sol 2464 Navcam L0 view of Santa Maria.

Jan van Driel

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I would not dream of jumping to conclusions, however it encourages me to note that Oppy travelled 5 km across parking lot in 171 sols. I believe that Oppy has only to cross a further 6.5 km of parking lot to reach Endeavour crater. I would like to congratulate the Mars rover drivers on their achievement.

see my new Oppy 3 D story online at Universe Today

Gorgeous 3 D Vistas of Martian Crater and Hydrate Minerals at Santa Maria
http://www.universetoday.com/81963/gorgeou...at-santa-maria/

includes part 1 my interview with Ray Arvidson with new info

also 3 D images, mosaics & mystery men from UMSF folk ... Stu, James, Walfy, ElkDanGrove, FredK, NickF, Marco & Ken

LOL, thanks for the nod Ken.

Nice article, Ken, and well-deserved nods to our amazing imagemages!

(Weird how I keep seeing more & more images credited to UMSF in some way or another...)

Progress is downlink limited at the moment, not Xmas break limited. There's a LOT of data to collect on the rim of this thing - PLUS, we need to be basically empty going into Solar Conjunction in a few short weeks.

Note - the day you wrote this, there was a drive.

yeah i've seen that from jvandriels panorama that the rover moved..plan is to get to se rim round mid January.

More fantastic formations in 3D of blueberry birthing grounds, coaxed into the world by the Martian winds. This one shows an interesting shadow with a slit of sunlight:
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Another:
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Some more:
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Interesting sinkhole feature:
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Turtle-head rock sticking out of sand:)
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Sol 2461 L2 pancams.
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looking at 3d detailed views of some rocks really show up some fine razor sharp edges there!

thanks for those really fascinating rock detail studies, walfy ... bizarre "Alien Micro Landscapes" !

This is only a draft version as there are still a few data dropouts and it is just the output from my automated system before doing any fine tuning or touchups that I'll do to the final version. However the view is so spectacular I couldn't sit on this any longer waiting for the last bits.



James

The road ahead.
Destination in the background.
Endeavour Crater.
Pancam L2 view on Sol 2464.

Jan van Driel

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My interpretation of the view of Santa Maria at Sol 2454 done today for some friends at French magazines.
Happy New Year 2011 to UMSF Forum Members and Planetary Society Members !!! Enjoy
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ADMIN: Please be mindful of posting images with large file sizes in consideration of users with limited speed and download capacity.
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Opportunity needs an oppera written for it. Stu, get that libretto together!

My pleasure. And thanks to many fine stitchers who share their work here, really awesome stuff lately.

Happy New Year UMSFers!

Finally getting a chance to just look at these image products.... wow! Fantastic work, folks.

walfy... I get lost in all those micro-niches of sharp berry pebbled edges and dust ledges ....
I just want to reach out and feel the textures......

Never gets boring!

Craig

Wow, James! So much great detail here.
Just look at this small section of the larger image...it has it all!
Craters, layering, blueberries, rocks, ejecta, sky, distant Endeavour's rim (Iazu too) and a wind gust for good measure.
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AWESOME

ON MARS, ON MARS, ON MARS!

The panoramic view on Sol 2453 en Sol 2454.
Taken with the L2 pancam.
Some data missing of 1 image.

Jan van Driel.

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Maestro Diego...

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nice views

Rodrigo Sanchez...

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The Navcam view on Sol 2467.
Added 2 images in front of Opportunity. ( See also navcam view Sol 2464 )
For better driving forwards?

Jan van Driel

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So.... I'm guessing we're getting closer to the small crater on the south side of Santa Maria..?

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3D pancam view: http://twitpic.com/3mn295/full

The Navcam view on Sol 2468.

Jan van Driel

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