• Opportunity is only a couple of hundred meters out and closing fast on the next mountain

• A short side trip east is in the works to check out an anomaly in the terrain

Opportunity is nearing the end of its long traverse across the plains between the Endeavour crater rim segments named "Nobbys Head"  and "Solander Point". We are only a couple of hundred meters from the nearest point of the next target mountain, "Solander Point." There appear to be all sorts of outcrops on the side slopes. What will be find there that we have not seen before? There is always something new. In any case, no one has ever been there before, so who knows what awaits.

Because we have been making good time, we have a couple of sols of margin that we would like to use , there is a desire to do a short side trip to the east to investigate an anomaly detected from orbital remote sensing. This means descending into the crater wall a hundred meters or so before turning south to intercept Solander Point. The anomaly looks texturally different as well as spectrally different. We will see what we see.

Below, the view from the Pancam on sol 3363. Getting close.