I was wondering if by using special methods like saturn shine, long exposures, etc one can image Saturn's icy moons (not counting Iapetus) north polar areas (ie 70N to 90N) right now and not wait until mid 2008 or later to do it. If so, is it being planned for?
This is just about possible, using Saturnshine, but it would be very difficult. If you picture the geometry, only light from the northern part of Saturn's disk will be reflected onto the northern pole of a moon. Well, a bit of light from the planet's southern hemisphere can graze the surface near the north pole, but not the pole itself. But that northern part of Saturn is itself both poorly illuminated and largely shadowed by the rings. So there is not much light to do the job. Still, it might be possible. In fact it might be worth searching the existing images to see if any of them show Saturnshine in that region.
Phil
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