[X] My Assistant

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This was an experiment done in an attempt to get a grip on the shape and identifiable surface features of a world that gets to be a whole box of rocks in itself (and keeps making me feel as dumb as one.) The ranges and resolutions vary widely, and it's more or less an effort to follow rotation crudely rather than being chronological. Hope it's somewhat useful and informative.

Perhaps the upcoming NT flyby in October will sharpen up some of these perspectives.



Below is a color-coded key with features tracked from frame to frame:

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This blurb from the significant event reports was the basis for the idea:

Tuesday, July 17 (DOY 198):

The final sequence development process for S34 kicked off today. The sequence is unusual in that it will be composed of four parts. The first part is similar to a normal background sequence but will run for only two weeks. This is followed by uplink and checkout activities for CDS version 10 flight software that will last for about a week and a half. During this time period there will be no science observations. After the conclusion of the CDS activities, a mini-sequence devoted to Hyperion observations will run for about four days. The last piece of S34 is again like a normal background sequence with full science activities. This will run for a little over a week, concluding on or about November 1. The Hyperion mini-sequence base products and stripped subsequences and the sequence products for the pieces of the S34 background sequence have been released for team review.

The (admittedly inaccurate) Cassini XYZ trajectory used in Celestia gives a closest approach on the order of 120,000km 21 October, which would likely produce images about good as those obtained 10 June 2005 (but properly exposed). The orientation of The Hyperion model is also way off, so I have no idea as to the viewing geometry.