Now THAT was worth waiting for. Huge Spirit update at Exploratorium, folks, go check it out. Not only some good scenic shots like Nick posted, but a huge set of MI images of Pot-of-Gold, they really photographed the heck out of it.

You know, Nick, I'm reminded of an exchange we had on this board in the fall of 2003, among my first posts I think. In a thread about what the landers were likely to see, I (I think) wondered if the crater walls would be visible; you predicted they would be below the horizon for most of the landing ellipse, and helpfully gave the formula for calculating that. Unfortunately, I think you made a math error, as when I plugged in the appropriate distances, heights, and planetary radius, it showed that from the center of the ellipse, the top of high rim segments to the SSE actually would show above a flat horizon, though not in any impressive way.

You remarked at the time, though, something like, "Who knows, maybe we will get lucky and there will a crater rim or small hill we can climb and get a view of the rim".

I'm very glad to see you proven right on that prediction!

Is it just me, btw, or does it look like there are some good outcrops along that first mesa -- rimrock, basically. I'd imagine it's most likely the front of a basalt flow, but that would still be awfully fun to check out.

Meanwhile, closer to home, has anyone looked at the microscopic images of Pot-O-Gold yet?

Seems to me it doesn't look like fragmented but solid basalt, not like the other rocks seen at Gusev. Different fine-scale texture (more grainy than crystalline, but also unlike the evaporites -- like coarse sandstone, or cemented ash, tuff, am I making any sense?). And weathers with those bulbs and curves and hints of layering, though *not* with anything leftover like the blueberries.

Anyway, any thoughts from our professional and armchair geologists? It's worth looking at.