With a drive of just over a meter, that marked the end of acquiring frames for the "Rocheport" Panorama.



False Color version:

This Rocheport panoramic is a mess, so I gave up on the stitching work. You did good James

The last Navcam panoramic updated with some Navcam imagery of Sol 4653. And yes, I was wondering if this is a dust event we are seeing on the horizon on the right part of the pano.

From the new PS update:
I'm surprized by this comment - usually all we see is an increase in tau and I would have guessed that a storm edge would be gradual. I guess he must be referring to the large 4653 gust we talked about. I don't know how easy it is to define the edge of a local storm - maybe it would have various gusts forming and disipating. But it certainly was true that this was one huge gust.

Also from Nelson:Needless to say 0.92 is pretty much pristine. Of course now as dust settles that will rise.

Nice to have a change of scenery! This is the first time we've seen Iazu in a while. Even with the high tau you can make it out on the left side of this frame:
http://merpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/oss/merb...D1P2364R2M_.JPG

Very nice scenery there, with a two-Sols Navcam panoramic, on Sols 4660 & 4661 :

And here is a spectacular view of the rim in 3-D. Enjoy
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Marvellous.... that's why we all come to this forum after a decade....

Circular version of Damia's panorama.

Phil

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(should really be rotated a bit counterclockwise to put north at the top)

Wonderful guys!

My jab at the vista.



Link to multiple resolutions:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/43581439@N08/...0418175/sizes/l

As a TPS Member, I hope that the rover team will make a quick stop at the highest peak nearby to have a spectacular 360° global view of the horizon to help our EPO activities on Earth
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I hope so too, although most or all of the horizon features more distant than Iazu are likely to be obscured by dust.

I hope so to, but I find doing a full 360 color panorama is pretty slim to none given Oppy's flash situation and would take roughly a month to do in current RAM mode. That's a whole month of sitting still when she could be driving and a month closer to the gully. I do hope a smaller color pan is taken somewhere along the way, like at the point you suggested.

Thanks James : I was just thinking about a quick 360° NavCam pan,
like the one taken at Sol 3894 when the rover reached the summit of Cape Tribulation
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/opportunity_n3894.html

plus (if possible) a L7 (blue) or L1 (clear) pan looking at the horizon only (like the ones taken at Sols 3902 and 4662)
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/opportunity_p3902.html
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/opportunity_p4662.html
not only for EPO, but also for documentation purposes (pics that maybe interesting to revisit for science and geological setting in the future)

Brief update to Crumpler's page for sol4662 describing the path over the rim and those dusty gusts. I had to slap myself (yet again): "..14th year of operations..."

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OMG (Oh My Gully!) One would think that by this time I had seen it all. One would think.

Paolo

Stunning view!

Here's my best guess as to what we're seeing. Matching colours match:
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The white arrows in the pancam view are my best guess for Perseverence Valley. But my confindence isn't extremely high...

Edit: see corrected views below...

(Btw, great to see you here again, Paolo!)

fwiw, a few stereo outtakes on the sol4665 perspective compared with simulated views generated using Sean's sketchfab model and another closer-up view from the sky to the left of fredk's blue circle
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I'm happy with fredk's yellow line, but beyond that, it seems we must use a bit grander scale to get features matched. From this several years old anaglyph (the respective view in reduced size), it looks like the peculiar ledge on the opposite Cape (is it called Cape Byron?) is akin to the white-headed feature in pancams. It is obvious that we should expect to see that Cape before being able to peek into the rather deep valley in between. The fresh dark crater is aligned with our destination gully along the lowest topography of the valley (thus being hidden by the local rim). Also the gully itself would appear rather subdued in relief until we practically drive on top of it. -Just my two cents as they say.

Yeah, the feature I'd circled green would appear far larger than that.

Here are my corrected identifications:
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As we proceed we should see the redlined ridge extend towards the lower left, until the head of Perseverence Valley (white arrows) will appear as a dip.

The Navcam L view on Sol 4663-4664.

Jan van Driel

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Thank a lot Jan van Driel
I hope that Opportunity will rove up the last few meters and take a quick and spectacular 360° pan from this nice vantage point !
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=40946

Well, from the new press image, I guess they were talking about the 4653 pancam sequence, not the navcam frame. The pancam sequence spans a couple of minutes, about 10 minutes before the massive gust was caught on navcam. Here's an animation:
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You can pretty clearly see a huge (based on its distance) gust front moving in from the left (north), just below the horizon.

I guess it's possible this continued to approach and became the gust visible in navcam.

Sol 4665 looks pretty bad too.

http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MERB/im...7P1987L0M1.html

Phil

The Pancam L2 view on Sol 4665.

Jan van Driel

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Jan's last full panorama in circular form. It exaggerates the nearby summit to almost Everest-like proportions - sorry, Olivier, I don't think we'll be scrambling up that! Of course, if we do, it will just look like a little bump from the top.

Phil

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The complete Navcam L0 view on Sol 4665-4667.

Jan van Driel

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A circular view of Jan's panorama showing us passing Olivier's 'mound' (sorry about that, Olivier... maybe next time).

Phil

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Thanks a lot Phil for your kind comment
'Sigh' for not having roved the 2nd summit...

Here is Opportunity's view on Mars from Sol 4668 along the rim of the big Endeavour crater...
Processed for you in real colors and in false colors, to enhance the local geological setting (with the hematite plains looking purple-gray). Enjoy
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As always a fantastic work, Olivier.
By the way, congratulations for your impressive work in the last release of "Ciel & Espace" !

Thank you very much Polaris : your kind comments are much appreciated

The Pancam L2 view on Sol 4667.

Jan van Driel

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The complete view stitched from images taken on Sol 4665 and Sol 4668.

Jan van Driel

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It took more than 13 years, but it finally happened, and it happened on my watch. Today I had the pleasure of sequencing a drive with Doug Ellison in the room. I wish all of you UMSF-ers could be part of it. Well, you are, but you know what I mean.

Paolo

Congratulations Doug you make it!
As member 682, I'll have to wait quite a bit more 😀
I guess Oppy will still be around

What do you mean "you guess"? ;-)

Paolo

I KNEW the drive felt particularly UMSF today. Great job, Paolo!

Coming full circle; congrats Doug!
Is is safe to say that this is the first time a mission ever lasted long enough for enthusiasts to end up on the mission team? (Maybe Voyager?)

Hahaha!
682x13= how many Sol ?

That would be Sol 8865, Jan 1 2029. I think that the most difficult part is that for JPL is is a Holiday, so you will have to wait Jan 2nd.

Paolo

It's possible the batteries could last 15,000 sols before really degrading.

Who knew it could go full circle. Even when I started working at JPL 7 years ago, the idea of working in surface ops didn't even enter my mind. It was only last summer when people like Paolo suggested it that it became a possibility. Certified as an ECAM Uplink Lead on MSL just before Christmas, and Wednesday was my first training shift on MER for the same role ( plus MI duty! ) . It'll be a month or two before I'm certified on MER as well - but I can't wait to start contributing meaningfully to a mission that in every possible way - absolutely changed my life.

Paolo, Keri, Mike, Kim, Hallie, Fred, Scott...... I just hope I can make you proud

Given what you did for public outreach since 2004, I'm sure you already have!

The Pancam L2 view on Sol 4672.

Jan van Driel

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The Navcam L0 view on Sol 4672-4674.

Jan van Driel

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Bah, I expect Martian colonists to watch Opportunity roll past their windows!



Congrats Doug, and thanks again for creating this awesome space.

It seems the air is clearing enough for spying distant features once more. On the horizon just left of centre here is what I take to be part of Bopolu - please correct me if I'm wrong. http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P0703L0M1.JPG
EDIT: On further examination I think it's too far south for Bopolu, so maybe it's the top of charborob's hill, first noted here - http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=34597

are we are headed for that very interesting feature on the left?


Couple other forums saying some sort of mineral deposit. Don't think we have seen anything like that yet, looks like a solid slab of some sorts wonder what that is? Cant wait to get there. I was able to find it on HIRISE, it is notably different color.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2377R2M1.JPG

Here is Jan's most recent panorama in circular form, showing how we crossed the outcrop area.

Regarding that bright flat-topped hill... most places like that turn out to be just patches of bright dust. There was a small one immediately south of the exit point a couple of weeks back. They look intriguing but they are not really very significant. If it's a major mineral feature CRISM would probably have resolved it and we would know about it. It's not on the projected path so the science team don't regard it as significant.

Phil

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So far nobody asked us to do so but we will be driving in that vicinity to drive around the sandy terrain that we have South of the rover.

Paolo

We can now see the "fresh crater" that was originally on the planned route - the dark "splash" just past the near slope at right middle frame:
http://merpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/oss/merb...00P2377R2M_.JPG

The Navcam L0 view on Sol 4677-4678.

Jan van Driel

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