Hmmm. It looks like the sky’s getting a little dim and dusty above Oppy…
Here’s a picture of the faraway hills displayed on Exploratorium on Apr 28th…
And here’s one of the latest images…
That second picture definitely looks fuzzier, doesn’t it? So it seems that Oppy is about to lose her clear views of the Hills for a while, maybe a long while, and we’re going to have to start looking for interesting things on the ground again… Time for another big meteorite to show itself, I’d say! 🙂
UPDATE: Checking the brilliant MER Image Decoder – a website that allows you to enter the ‘registration number’ of a MER image and then tells you exactly (and I mean exactly!) when it was taken, showed that the ‘dusty’ image shown above was taken on Tuesday May 18th. Today’s batch of images shown on the Exploratorium website include some taken on Saturday May 22md, which I’ve combined to make a single panorama…
If you click on that image to bring up a full size version you’ll see that the detail in the hills has returned! So it looks like some kind of localised dust storm blew through the area a week or so ago, briefly dimming the lights for Oppy and obscuring the hills. Looks much better now, but that’s a timely reminder that Oppy is travelling across a dusty, windy desert, and we can’t take anything – anything – for granted.
Fascinating journey we’re on, isn’t it? 🙂
The Road To Endeavour 
Every day is amazing. Kudos for taking us along the journey with you!