[X] My Assistant

[TritonAntares]

First of all, again the two existing encounter animations:
Animation 1
Animation 2

Nearest approach:

Resolution about 3,6 km/pxl.

And some pre-info about upcoming encounters:
2006 Mar 25 to Apr 18: Apr 11 - 602.412 km; 14-3.6 km/pxl; medium to high phase, southern hemisphere as crescent
2006 Jun 17 to 27: Jun 23 - 1.343.000 km; 14-8.1 km/pxl; medium to low phase, sub-Saturn hemisphere
2006 Sep 08 to 09: Sep 02 - 1.816.000 km; ~20 km/pxl; zero phase (3 to 0.05 deg), sub-Saturn
2006 Nov 26: 1.997.000 km; 12 km/pxl; very low phase, sub-Saturn
2007 Feb 12 to 15: Feb 14 - 2.249.000 km; ~14 km/pxl; sub-Saturn; very low phase and eclipse
2007 Apr 14: 2.256.000 km
2007 Jun 22: 1.817.000 km; ~14 km/pxl; med. phase, trailing side
2007 Sep 03 to 09: 8.6-0.7 km/pxl; very high phase, western Cassini Regio
2007 Sep 10: 480-10-540 m/pxl; targeted flyby, trailing side
2007 Sep 11 to 17: 0.7-7.1 km/pxl; low phase (~33 deg) trailing side
2007 Sep 27: 15 km/pxl, low phase sub-Saturn+trailing side
2007 Nov 26: 1.371.000 km; 8.2 km/pxl; very high phase, north pole, possibly graylight
2008 Feb 13: 2.045.000 km; 14 km/pxl; high phase, north pole, possibly graylight

Days around Sep 10 belong to the targeted fly-by in about 1000 km distance,
others will only be some OPNAVs.

Bye.

[scalbers]

Very interesting to learn more about the pattern of colors on Iapetus. I wonder if this image is corrected to look like an RGB image would (i.e. "near-true" color) or should be categorized as false color since it is taken with the UV, G, and IR filters? Curious that CR maybe looks a bit yellower than in some of the other color releases.

[ugordan]

I'd venture to say the image looks so funny, compared to previous "true" color and false color images is because they used the IR3 filter in place of the IR1 usually used for stretched, "true-like" color (IR1-GRN-UV3). I had similar results pop up using the PDS data from the New Years flyby.

IR1-GRN-UV3, "natural-looking" color.


IR3-GRN-UV3, stretched/false color.

My guess on the true color of the Iapetus' dark stuff would be something like the first image above, but a less saturated shade of brown. The color differences across CR would be even less discernible in a RGB view, probably looking very monotone and dull.