Base of Cape Verde

         The Opportunity rover acquired this mosaic of the base and back end of Cape Verde on Sol 1573 (June 26, 2008).  The mosaic's odd shape is due to the fact that it was taken as part of a full mosaic of Cape Verde.  This full mosaic was more difficult than first planned; by this point in the mission, Opportunity had dust on the front sapphire windows, causing a blurring on the right side of full frame images.  Subframing out the right third of the full frames helped mitigate the problem, but the effect still shows when looking toward the sun, as can bee seen in the upper images of this mosaic.  Because of this and issues with shadows, imaging of Cape Verde was a challenge.  The mosaic's field of view is roughly 65 degrees across at the bottom and 45 degrees high along the right side.
         This mosaic was created using Pancam's 753-nm, 535-nm, and 432-nm filters. Two versions are offered here at full resolution: an approximate true color rendering, and a false color stretch to bring out subtle color differences in the scene. Also provided is an overhead view of Victoria Crater showing the approximate location of the rover during the time of imaging.

Jim Bell
Pancam Instrument Lead
February 20, 2009