Rev 217, June 7th to June 25th Options

[machi]

Here are details about this revolution from the Ciclops.
One of the most interesting observations for me were yesterday's imaging of the tiny moon Polydeuces.
Those are the best to date and probably the best for decades.

[Ian R]

Good work, Dan. Looks a little like Methone to me, which is hardly surprising.

[machi]

Thanks!
Yes, small Saturn's moon are very similar. It would be nice to have drilling equipment on one of those small moons. It would be effectively drilling into history of the ring system and Enceladus' activity.

[EDG]

I noodled together this composite full-res image of crescent Dione taken on Jun 15th through CL1 and CL2 - it's not high space art but it looks pretty neat!



I used the raw images listed below and just aligned them as best as I could in Photoshop (so you can still see the seams) - I didn't do anything else other than remove an annoying bright strip from the right edge of 332884 - I'm sure someone can do a better job but I just wanted to see the full crescent in all its glory :

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=332894
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=332889
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=332884
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=332879

I'm pretty sure this is the wideangle view of the same shot - so the non-black background actually is saturn's darkside lit by the rings!:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=332817

[jccwrt]

I made an attempt at piecing together a color mosaic (IR1, GRN, UV3) of Dione, but the northern hemisphere seems a bit on the blue side.


Dione - Rev 217 Flyby Departure by Justin Cowart, on Flickr

A black and white version made from just the clear filter images can be found here.

I have also stitched together the 6 CLR frames taken on approach. A slight unsharp mask has been applied to help the lineaments on the surface stand out a little better. I'm still working on the color version.



Dione - Rev 217 Flyby Approach by Justin Cowart, on Flickr


Finally I've done a bit of processing work on the lookback shot with the night side of Saturn in the background:

Dione - Rev 217 Flyby Lookback by Justin Cowart, on Flickr

It's essentially a composite photo made from W00093061 and W00093063. To get a smooth gradient in the ring-shine on Saturn, I applied a spatter filter to remove the banding. Wasn't too successful on the southern side of the rings, since there were fewer brightness steps down there. For raw frames like this, though, it's about the best I can do to deal with it.

[nprev]

...absolutely stunning work. Those are the best images I've ever seen of Dione.

[antipode]

it's not high space art but it looks pretty neat!

It most certainly IS high space art, and a lot of other superlatives too. Wow.
Dione doesn't always get the respect it should - more than just another 'icy moon'!

P

[EDG]

It most certainly IS high space art, and a lot of other superlatives too. Wow.
Dione doesn't always get the respect it should - more than just another 'icy moon'!

Well, I meant more that it's not got all the fancy processing that you guys do to make your versions of the images look so amazing .

But yeah, there's something about crescents that grabs me. They just look too cool! A lot of the image sets that Cassini has taken have made these moons much more interesting and aesthetically pleasing than I had previously given them credit for.

[jccwrt]

I was able to assemble the color version of the approach mosaic together today.


Dione - Rev 217 Approach Color by Justin Cowart, on Flickr

The blue northern cusp of the crescent suddenly makes sense, I didn't realize that Cassini was passing over the high northern latitudes at closest approach. We're seeing more of the brighter leading hemisphere.

[eliBonora]

I also have not resisted to Dione!

[volcanopele]

Just a head's up to all you fine Dione mosaickers, the remaining two frames from the full-disk mosaic have been downlinked so you can finish off your mosaics (the bottom left frame was downlinked earlier).

[jccwrt]

Just a head's up to all you fine Dione mosaickers, the remaining two frames from the full-disk mosaic have been downlinked so you can finish off your mosaics (the bottom left frame was downlinked earlier).

Thanks for the head's up. I've added the remaining frames to the mosaic. The bottom left corner is at half-resolution of the rest, since it appears that Cassini didn't take a high-res CLR filter image for me to project the colors onto. Shouldn't be too noticeable unless you really go looking for it, though!

Dione flyby by Justin Cowart, on Flickr

[hendric]

Amazing mosiac Justin! I'll be sharing that one around!

[Bill Harris]

Cassini made it's contribution to the science of another mission:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19641

As one NASA spacecraft sailed past the distant ice world of Pluto, collecting never-before-seen vistas and invaluable science data, another spacecraft turned its gaze in that direction from its outpost at Saturn. NASA's Cassini spacecraft took a momentary break from its duties to capture this far-off portrait around the time of the New Horizons encounter with Pluto.

Good show.

--Bill