Hey, I'd forgotten about this. Thanks for the reminder, Emily!

Tremendous mosaic, Justin; I know how hard it is to work with the Voyager Jupiter data sets, so this is particularly satisfying!

The two best views of UT thus far (courtesy of LORRI and MVIC):

It's a jaw-dropping image: congratulations to the NH science team.

Here's a colorized version, purely for aesthetic purposes:

Hi John,

That's pretty amazing! Thanks for the feedback: it's an honor to be tangentially involved with the team as new discoveries are being made about UT.

Ian.

My speculation is that the two lobes were never individual objects in the first place, and that the original fast rotation of MU69 -- back when it was newly formed and more prone to deformation -- caused a 'blob' to begin to separate from the main body due to centripetal forces, which in the end weren't enough for the two components to part completely.

Just a stab in the dark from a layperson!

Wonderful images! Amazing how a slew of pictures at very moderate resolution can still be pretty insightful. I took one of the GIF animations and made an aligned and 'bouncy' version:



Looks as if the lobes are less spherical than they are hamburger shape!

Utterly gorgeous!

Turns out that most of the bright spots visible in the two raw images available thus far (4:22 and 4:23 AM UTC), are indeed stars:

Here's a mediocre effort of my own, Emily

And this one might be of interest to Daniele


Titan: Ligeia Mare and environs (T-28, T-29, T-25, T-104)

Another exercise in seam removal, but this time applied to stacked radar data from multiple Cassini flybys:


Ontario Lacus and Environs (T-39, T-57, T-58, T-65, T98)

Perhaps a deep, black-ish-brown would be the right colour? Even so, it still looks great Daniele!

Thanks everyone for the positive responses. As I'm sure you can imagine, this data was an absolute bear to work with, so although room for improvement undoubtedly exists, I'm generally delighted with the results.

I intend to post versions incorporating the SAR radar data (perhaps colour-coded? I'm undecided on the exact presentation.)

But for now, here are those three image products again, this time merged with topographical information from a paper by P. Corlies et al:


Cassini ISS Titan Mosaic & Topography: Equatorial View (USGS/Ian Regan/P.Corlies et al.)


Cassini ISS Titan Mosaic & Topography: Northern Hemisphere (USGS/Ian Regan/P.Corlies et al.)


Cassini ISS Titan Mosaic & Topography: Southern Hemisphere (USGS/Ian Regan/P.Corlies et al.)

Blue areas represent low-lying regions up to -1,800 metres below the average. Red areas indicates peaks of up to 650 metres.

Thanks!

In answer to your question, that dark feature is Polaznik Macula — a formation that plays host to two suspected temperate lakes: Sionascaig Lacus and Urmia Lacus:

http://thedragonstales.blogspot.com/2015/0...rmia-lacus.html

I'm pleased to finally be able to reveal the fruits of a project that's been a long time (~4 years) in the making: an updated, amended, and restored version of the 2013 USGS Titan Cassini Controlled ISS Global Mosaic.


Cassini ISS Titan Mosaic --- Equatorial (USGS/Ian Regan)


Cassini ISS Titan Mosaic --- North Polar (USGS/Ian Regan)


Cassini ISS Titan Mosaic --- South Polar (USGS/Ian Regan) by Ian Regan, on Flickr

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/Cassini Data Analysis Program/USGS Astrogeology Science Center/Ian Regan

This restoration was done primarily for the big screen film IN SATURN'S RINGS, by Stephen van Vuuren. For more details on the mosaic, and how I processed the polar regions completely from scratch, please visit the film's website: https://www.insaturnsrings.com/titan-seam-blending

My pictorial tribute to our dear and departed robotic friend ....


Cassini's Last Dance — A Final Portrait of Saturn by Ian Regan, on Flickr

This file (just my attempt to fiddle with one of Gerald's supersized frames) was 1.46 MB.

Here's to a very happy, long and rewarding retirement, Phil

Thanks Jase!

The other version of the mosaic (sans annotations) is actually presented 'upside-down', which is just an aesthetic choice:


Cassini's 'Grand Finale' Saturn Portrait (April 13, 2017)

Cassini Grand Finale Saturn Portrait (Annotated Version) (April 13, 2017) by Ian Regan, on Flickr

Soon .....

We're looking at the south pole of Saturn (currently in mid-winter darkness), and the G and E rings. In the background is a star field which straddles the Orion / Taurus border:



http://nova.astrometry.net/user_images/1609771#original

Latest shots of ATLAS, fresh off the press!

The impact crater caused by the Surveyor 3 retrorocket was fortuitously photographed during the Apollo 12 landing:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=226887