Endeavour is safely in orbit.

This is just an update of my cannabilized polar region map with the T28 swath inserted. I'm still really uncertain as to the location of the T30 crop to the south...I suspect that I have it one bay north of it's actual position. Hopefully we'll find out soon.

This is in response to Emily's request for suggestions regarding the irregular satellite size comparison on PS weblog. Mimas is included for scale as the smallest of the (roughly) spherical icy moons. I picked images of Prometheus and Pan within the ring plane because they seem to have a bit more detail. A key is included for visitors. The image scale here is approximately 330 meters per pixel.





Rude Commentary: To put this politely, gosh, I sure hope they can get better views of Prometheus some time...

Sure thing! Be forewarned...upside-down won't get any better with them, but they do allow you to drive backwards. I ran over my own post fifteen minutes ago.

Edit: "This Side Up" on Hyperion remains sort of ambiguous. I suggest that Proteus is the box Hyperion came in, and that Ted has reprocessed the image enough that the lettering may finally be visible.

I might be totally off my meds here, but I disagree. This feature looks like the prominent crater to the "southeast" (!?!) of the big facet seen during the targeted encounter (bottom center in your map). To illustrate:




I think this is the bite out of the cookie (forgive me, my 4-year-old was doing impressions of you-know-who this morning). If I'm wrong Phil, you can pummel me with rocks, preferrably irregular and faceted.

EDIT: D'oh! VP got it before I did. Unrelated bonus points in Io vs Europa deathmatch. I'll get you my pretty, if it's the last thing I do! (There's no defense against buckets of superheated sulphur. Appealing to UMSF High Council).

Woohoo! Very nice set this pass, and scads of new and better-defined detail north of Melanthius to concur with Steve. Quick-an' filthy summary here:

The global view looking back. Just a suggestion for Steve...the press version of this if released might really level out the shading variations on your map on this hemisphere.

A few more mosiacs from 47:

I need a bucket and a mop for all these gallons of drool. Traveling this month, so sadly unable to be all over these marvelous images like flies on...yeah. All those bitty fractures and ice that really looks like ice at high phase angles. Everything north of the scene in the 9 March 2005 view of the Ithaca Chasma should really smooth out the map of this hemisphere...I wonder if the camera team planned it this way all along (never understood why they didn't take in the whole canyon back then when they had the opportunity). Telemachus looks incredible at this resolution too. Thanks for the stitches DEChengst, and second the warm welcome to Eric!

You betcha!

STS-30:
(Side note...the mission insignia for this flight is far and away my favorite of all in terms of design.)

Ulysses launch and deployment, STS-41, October 1990:

Not sure where to place this (Historical or Manned). I've got a keen and unsightly interest in photography and history regarding the shuttle missions that deployed planetary science and astronomy spacecraft (Earth science missions included). Absolutely wish to avoid crewed/uncrewed debates, but any background or stories related to these missions would be vastly appreciated. As for the photography, high-resolution digital images of the processing, launches, and deployments of these spacecraft that are currently unavailable...post em' here if you can.
I consider photos of Galileo and Ulysses in the stowed positions to be the Unholy Grails of this peculiar fixation. ( a gentleman who ran a site devoted to obscure payload bay imagery stated that he thought Ulysses pics were in short supply because of that prominent jet-black RTG sticking up like a certain colloquial social gesture).
I've found the STS-93 Chandra mission to be the easiest to find satisfying digital coverage of. Yet another series of posters begins with the Chandra and Galileo missions.

Toyota (smack)

That's nifty, nprev. I want a picture of this.

Very nice Ian!
Here's an enlarged version of the what I think is the best prior view of Atlas from June 2005 for anyone who hasn't already seen it. Pretty sure south is at the top in this one.

That is an outstanding version of the V1 Dione mosaic, Ted. The new map looks wonderful...that nasty seam between the Cassini and Voyager coverage has all but evaporated with the April imagery. It looks like there may be an opportunity to plug the remaining lower-resolution gap in September.

Sorry about the captions, ngunn...OWW is correct on the identifications.I'm a real space cadet, but in a totally different way. The toughest one would probably be the second image on the top row of the Tohil Montes on Io. I love that image in particular, part of a five-frame mosaic from I32 in October 2001. I put it above Everest for the echo effect. I was actually working on a key sheet to go with the poster with the place names included (not like the GRS needs an introduction).

VP, I'll tag-team with JJ against you in the deathmatch just on principle. I did like the "California of the solar system" statement, though. It has the ring of truth. On second thought here...JJ, when has Rhea ever hogged the public spotlight?!? Here?

Hi there. Welcome to UMSF. I'm not sure which program you're referring to with any certainty, but Celestia has the features you're describing and quite a bit more. It's not a screensaver per se, but I've used it as such on occasion. I missed the STS-117 launch today, but always glad to hear everything went well.

This whole exchange gave me another bright idea. This is at a quarter scale and some of the images are placeholders. I'll get the full scale one up at a free hosting site later.

Much of my interest in Tethys stemmed from that teeny corner of the disc being revealed.The cause of the lost mosaic was well explained by edstrick somewhere a ways back...the images were taken but all but one were of black sky because Tethys wasn't where the scan platform was pointed at the time, much like the early Cassini nontargeted flybys of Dione and Enceladus where portions of the disc were missed due to position uncertainties. The albedo and cratering differences kinda make Tethys look "inorganic" to me...it reminds me of one of those digital image maps where the lighting and resolution changes from region to region.


I would really like anyone to explain how the viewing geometry in the pair of images below is possible. Both have north at the top, both are taken from below the ring plane, both show Tethys in the sky just beyond the eastern limb of Saturn. How is it you see Odysseus in the top frame and the Ithaca Chasma hemisphere in the bottom one? This has bugged me for ages. I'm sure it has to do with Cassini's position in it's orbit, but I can't visualize it.




EDIT: I just felt like slapping my forehead hard enough to knock my eyeballs out. It's because Tethys is on the other side of Saturn in the bottom one, huh?

The complete set of mosaics from 27 May (Clear filter):

I'll put the Rhea poster in here to avoid starting a dedicated thread that might be a little sleepy. The scale is reduced because of the sheer number of excellent global views, which seem to be a product of Rhea and Cassini's orbits both. dvandorn pointed out the profusion of crater chains which he considers to be possibly endogenic, something I'd never thought of. Sometimes the dead do tell tales. As with the previous posters in the series, most of the color views are ugordan's.

(Expletive deleted), that really does skew the balance!!!

Mars 6.56gb
Terra 1.54gb
Europa 1.22gb
Titan 843mb
Luna 751mb
Venus 496mb
Io 352mb
Saturn 302mb
Mercury 291mb
Enceladus 234mb

I clearly could have phrased the topic/question better. Absolutely true that each world is fascinating in it's own right, but I was aiming for personal tastes. ( I've spent a fairly disporportionate amount of time sorting and staring at pictures of Rhea ) An entirely seperate poll based on percentage of hard drive space occupied would paint a different picture too.

Bonus points for listing Mars twice, and equating Charon with Rhea is thought-provoking. Europa provokes deathmatch in the alley behind Pizza Hut of your choice. I'm slow and uncoordinated, so play nice.

Yes, it's time to Rock the Inner Geek and proclaim your love for what you consider to be what's hot and what's...well, boring in terms of planetary excitement. Criteria may include dynamicism, color, scale, grandeur, crater-counting wrist torture, budgetary reality, and whatever else you might consider relevant. I'll open with my own picks, without giving any particular reasons. (Earth can count if you like)

In descending order...

Most Interesting:

1.) Io
2.) Titan
3.) Europa
4.) Enceladus
5.) Mars
6.) Triton
7.) Venus
8.) Pluto
9.) Dione
10. Iapetus


Least Interesting:

1.) Rhea
2.) Luna
3.) Mercury
4.) Oberon
5.) Mimas
6.) Tethys
7.) Callisto
8.) Ganymede
9.) Earth
10.) New Jersey