[X] My Assistant

[elakdawalla]

Hi everybody,

I was talking with Amanda Hendrix at JPL today about the upcoming icy satellite encounters, and she asked me if I had any way of getting in touch with amateur observers. They are looking for people to do photometric observations of Hyperion for several days on either side of the flyby. She said: "Ground-based observing will help to constrain the current state of rotation of Hyperion, whose spin axis changes. The visual magnitude of Hyperion is 16.5, so serious photometry would require at least a 24-inch telescope."

Gulp. That's a big telescope, and short notice, with the encounter only 6 days away. I'm not an observer so I don't know how to get in touch with lots of amateurs with big scopes except for the couple of people I know personally. Can anybody on this board help get the word out?

--Emily

[tfisher]

I sent a request to get this posted at hohmanntransfer.com, which is a site listing news especially related to amateur observers of minor objects. The moderator is currently at a low pace of updates, but hopefully this gets posted quickly.

Emily, can you find out what the best way for people to submit photometry results back to Dr. Hendrix?

[elakdawalla]

Emily, can you find out what the best way for people to submit photometry results back to Dr. Hendrix?

I am checking! Thanks!

For those of you whose scopes aren't big enough -- you're still one up on me. I don't even own a telescope. And I am deeply ashamed to admit that I have gazed through a telescope at a planet only three times in my life.

--Emily