Plantetary landers are far from my speciality, so I’ll not dwell on Phoenix too long. Last night’s landing was well-covered by the blogosphere and in particular (took the BBC ages to catch up in fact), I was following the MarsPhoenix Twitter feed and The Planetary Society. The University of Arizona has an excellent webpage covering the mission and of course NASA also has much to say. Both are great sites and easy to read.
If, as my brother-in-law would say, you want to skip to the end: here are the pictures! First up is the first image sent back of the surface. It is black and white because that way they could send the image quickly and more easily in order to test out the lander. Phoenix has 14 colour filters and will be able to send full colour pictures later on.
Above we have a false colour image (UV and infrared filters) showing the hexagonal features of the ground in this arctic region. Below is a tall panorama showing the vast plains that are indicative of the geographical region on Mars, where Phoenix has landed.
So funny, I did the same thing. Although thrilled about the Phoenix landing, I wasn’t really that entralled to write a unique entry on Astroengine, but I felt the need to do something. So I found my favorite picture and talked about why it was my favorite picture
I’ll leave the cool planetary landing stuff to the professionals. Now, back to more exciting space-time, quantum, cosmology stuff! 
You’re doing a great job by the way over here. It looks like you have a very crisp operation rolling, plus I’ve always admired your branding - an Orbital Frog, who would have thought it!
Hopefully catch you soon Rob,
All the best, Ian.
Thanks, Ian. Yes sometimes the blogosphere is very efficient and needs no adding to. But you’re quite right: everyone loves photos!