Martian Vistas

Santa Maria Crater from Opportunity's conjunction parking spot at Luis de Torres on part of the southeast rim known as Yuma.

Full Resolution (18956 x 5792) ( 19MB )
Half Resolution (9478 x 2896) ( 5MB )
Quarter Resolution (4739 x 1448) ( 1MB )
Eighth Resolution (2369 x 724) ( 336kB )

Well I'm 12 hours or so early, but as solar conjunction is upon us and Oppy isn't going anywhere, I'll post this now while I can.

It is now sol 2500 which means another point on my large scale route map. even though Oppy spent half of the last 100 sols at Santa Maria she still made fantastic progress towards Endeavour due to the incredible turn of speed as she crossed the 'parking lot'.

Click images to enlarge
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There are still a few sections of corrupted data in the raw images, however I couldn't wait any longer and the bad bits were small enough to fudge reasonably well. So here is Santa Maria in all her glory!

Full Resolution (14488 x 4045) ( 10MB )
Half Resolution (7244 x 2022) ( 2MB )
Quarter Resolution (3622 x 1011) ( 656kB )
Eighth Resolution (1811 x 505) ( 160kB )

The small La Gallega Crater on the sloping ejecta blanket of Santa Maria. The hills of Endeavour crater (Opportunities long term goal) are on the horizon.

Full Resolution (2244 x 673) ( 334kB )

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.

EDIT: An improved version can now be found here

Full Resolution (14608 x 2944) ( 7MB )
Half Resolution (7304 x 1472) ( 2MB )
Quarter Resolution (3652 x 736) ( 606kB )
Eighth Resolution (1826 x 368) ( 159kB )

While we wait for the full colour pancam images to be downlinked from the rover, crude colour can be derived from the small 64x64 thumbnail images that are sent down first (so that the rover team can check that they we taken properly). In this image I have overlaid this colour information onto a greyscale navcam image taken at the same spot. Quite a view!

Full Resolution (3452 x 828) ( 740kB )
Half Resolution (1726 x 414) ( 201kB )

Hecla crater, another small hole that Oppy drove past recently on her way to Santa Maria which is now only a little over 1km away.

Full Resolution (2959 x 1084) ( 1MB )
Half Resolution (1479 x 542) ( 373kB )

A view of the hills of Endeavour Crater getting ever closer on the horizon. On the left are the 'Twin Peaks'
on the north rim of Endeavour (there are many more than the two peaks that we could see for a long time now!). In the middle is the large hills of the far side of the crater and on the right are parts of the near rim near to where Oppy is headed, the actual 'landfall' point is still out of sight just to the left of these peaks.

Full Resolution (4220 x 296) ( 356kB )

Here is Intrepid Crater from the other side. The tracks that Oppy made as she approached the crater can be seen on the far side of the crater (left). This mosaic was taken as she drove away to the east, heading for Santa Maria and Endeavour beyond.

Full Resolution (4624 x 1168) ( 1018kB )
Half Resolution (2312 x 584) ( 314kB )

Intrepid Crater with the hills of Endeavour ever closer in the background.

Full Resolution (7176 x 1160) ( 1MB )
Half Resolution (3588 x 580) ( 599kB )