El Dorado

         This is an approximate true color rendering of the "El Dorado" dune field explored by Spirit over the New Year's holiday weekend. The view spans about 160 degrees in azimuth and consists of 66 Pancam images acquired on Spirit sols 708 and 710 (Dec. 30, 2005 and Jan. 1, 2006) through the 753nm, 535nm, and 432nm filters. Image-to-image seams have been eliminated from the sky portion of the mosaic to better simulate the vista a person standing on Mars would see. Spirit spent several days acquiring images, spectral data, and compositional and mineralogic information on this large basaltic sand sheet before beginning to move further downhill towards "Home Plate."

Jim Bell
Pancam Instrument Lead
January 3, 2006