No additional NAC images of enceladus have shown up on the raws page since the flyby - it seems there must have been a problem of some sort with the near-encounter mosaic imagery.
Shame, but you can't win 'em all
Oh well, the next encounter's less than three weeks away....

There was no mosaic imagery this time around planned. All the mosaics are planned for the next encounter.

My mistake - thanks jason, I look forward to those.

I was confused as well. My previous post was in response to what I thought were missing mosaic images. Glad to realize that they will show up in three weeks.

As I recall the next flyby is the one that shows more new terrain at higher resolution - should be pretty neat.

Great - enjoyed it ......Keep posting

It is really amazing that Cassini is being flown through these plumes. I find these very powerful images. They really move me.

I am away from home on the East Coast of Aus in Newcastle at a family enagement party but took time out and had fun taking a bit of time out doing this interpretation on my laptop.

Click to view attachment

Did a fair bit to get the Saturnshine to show up and get more details on those fantastic plumes. Can't pretend it's scientifically accurate. I more wanted to get a powerful impression without straying too far from the reality. My laptop has a horrible screen so I hope it turns alright for others.

Like it, Hugh from Alice!

The plumes turn into a city in celibration! I suspect some jpeg artifacts are creeping in, but it makes nice art.

These are some of the best raw images, ever.

Thanks. I like the dichotomy of in some pics going for effect and in others going for accuracy. That's the fun of blogging!! But not enough hours in the day.

Yes, fantastic raw images, great space craft and team, plus brilliant skeet shoot technique!!

Quote from the flyby page for today:
"NASA's Cassini spacecraft will fly by Saturn's moon Enceladus this weekend for a last peek at the intriguing 'tiger stripes' before winter darkness blankets the area for several years."

Got me thinking what will the tiger stripes look like after the sun sets. Might there be some kind of luminescence associated with the plume activity?

Probably nothing that wouldn't already have been discovered in many long exposure, eclipse shots during the outbound leg on a couple of flybys.

Right, thanks, clearly nothing on a spectacular scale. I was thinking of a very localised effect, maybe confined to the 'throats' of the vents where presumably collisions and friction occur. With resolution comparable to the 30m expected today maybe it's still an outside possibility for the future.

Wow:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=207300

This is a WA image. The thumbnails on the Cassini raw image site are broken but the images are there.

Highly fractured terrain:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=207285

Extremely rough terrain at high resolution, I wonder if this is due to recent/ongoing geological activity:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=207273

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! Hi-res plumes:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=207263

Actually I can't resist posting a plume image here. These are by far the best and most spectacular plume images Cassini has obtained:

Click to view attachment

Plumes from a distance of less than 10,000 km!

Holy frak...!!!

Best get the swear jar ready folks...

This one shows backlit plume material silhouetted against the shadowed surface along the fractures so it is very easy to determine exactly where the plumes originate:

Click to view attachment

Of the many spectacular images Cassini has returned these are definitely near the top.

OH WOW ....Bjorn

the images are beyond what I expected! Plumes and all that fracturing...

Look at these
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=207271

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...5/N00146728.jpg

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=207262


Craig

I'm getting the impression that this must be the most 'photogenic' Enceladus encounter so far despite having looked at only a few images.

Just WOW!!!

This one has left me almost unable to use whole words. Wow!!!

Bjorn, I totally agree--these are some of the best images of the mission, and that really says a lot. Wow!

Yup, swear jar time! Amazing, really amazing! Those plumes coming from the dark into the light...wow

Oh, my, these images are simply wonderful! Here's a rough cross-eyed stereo view of the plumes.
Click to view attachment
Anyone prefer a red/blue anaglyph instead?

Meh... I've seen better.

More seriously.
HOLY CRUD!
That is so spectacular! I never thought you would ever be able to actually point to and say "That is the plume source" from Cassini images. This is amazing! Wow... just absolutely gorgeous. You can even trace the scarps on the dark-side of the moon. These images are incredible!

Edit:
Wow! Look at that canyon!
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=207280

A great stereo view of one of the stripes, 2.6 and 3 thousand km frames:
Click to view attachment

And an anaglyph of frames from 2 and 2.3 thousand km frames:

Wow...

Click to view attachment

Wonderful sights! Hats off to the Cassini team, and thanks to Stu and Gordan for the 3Ds. (But Stu, I'm having to reverse the specs to see the same as Gordan's cross-eye version.)

EDIT: I'm also suffering from a rush of blood to the head as a result of balancing upside down to get a 'normal' view of that plumed landscape in post 65.

Those plume images !!!!!!!!

I was a bit depressed before the flyby knowing that this was likely the last time a spacecraft would be able to see the Tiger Stripes in the next 20 years.


Then I saw the images where I could see the plumes emerging from the surface ..... well, still sorry that this is the last of the surface images of the south pole, but what a great way to go out!

here's a red/blue anaglyph of the plumes, with the contrast tweaked just a wee bit.

Click to view attachment

B*r! Thanks for pointing that out, corrected version here...

http://twitpic.com/qdbuc

Fantastic work by the Cassini team to bring us those astounding pictures. What a place!

WOW!! THanks for the eye-popping stereo, guys!

This is what red-blue glasses were made for. Jaw-dropping stuff. Thank you!

Stereo images are simply amazing!

I'd almost forgotten about this encounter (unusual for me, as I am normally very well-aware of Cassini's upcoming treats) There seems to have been much less fanfare with this encounter, but going by the images, it has to be the best yet.
Simply stunning! many congratulations to those that plan the observations - seems to have all gone to plan.
Rhea encounter up next too - maybe we'll get a little more insight into that equatorial band on this flyby.
Great times.....

<Ob StarWars reference>

Astounding images, and at 17200mph!

This flyby certainly set new standards for awesome.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=207423
It's like flying through the fog! Also, check out the moon's limb contour!

Amazing to see Enceladus' shadow appear to lift off in several locations, and to see the limb of the dark side as Gordan mentions. I wonder how these images showing localized plumes might be able to be correlated with CIRS measurements to help derive temperatures.

Would love to have seen the reaction from the science teams when these images came down

Just... beautiful...

Click to view attachment

<yawn><wakes up, turns on computer, goes to UMSF>.... <CLINK!> ....THUD!!!!! <passes out again!>

Good grief. These are all just ridiculously amazing images. I gotta digest this. Think one of the overhead shots actually showed a fumarole!

The longer the mission the better the images...

Ya know, Stu.... I do not know if there are words for these moments but I hope you find them.

When CASSINI acheived Saturn orbit back in 2004, I never dreamed we would see this. The Universe is so big. We are so small. But we can manage missions like these. Just makes me wonder what else is waiting for us out there!

Glorious!

Craig

p.s Hope you are well!

Mosaic made of the initial images N00146699, N00146701, and N00146702. Dropouts removed, and an underlayer of wide angle W00061502 used as background. Much leveling, and dodging/burning/and blurring to blend int the dropout areas.

Click to view attachment


-Mike

Just in case you are all wondering: The E-8 playback ended about 3 hours ago ERT. The rest of the data I presume will be carried over to the next playback which begins, Earth-receipt time, in about 40 minutes or so. The gap is the result of the Rhea non-targeted encounter. Now, I am not sure either whether this playback will be a real-time stream like the one this morning was. I think we should know in about an hour. If it isn't, Rhea and Enceladus images will show up around midnight MST (~10-11 hours from now)

I was wondering. Thanks, Jason, for the info.

I have STS-129 NASA TV coverage in one window, downloaded CASSINI images in another and then this forum.

space heaven

Craig

Don't want to appear ungrateful, but Cassini passed Calypso within 40,000km en-route to Rhea - no chance I suppose for a couple of snapshots of the moon? Perhaps it was in eclipse at the time, or pointing constraints ruled out any images based on priorities....
Just askin'....

Sirs, I still need to fully recover from such pleasant shock.... The multiple plumes emerging from darkness and "tracing" the faults are simply breathtaking!
In the meantime I made this mosaic where I identified contest of images 6002_14142 (WA), 6004_14140 (NA) and 5999_14130 (NA):
Click to view attachment
In fact this sequence could be used to make a real "bird fly" over such features! (note that I rotated 180° all pictures and I cropped in order to almost eliminate the very disturbing histogram on one side of all ciclops pictures).

Truly wonderful images. Thanks to those that have taken the time to present some of the highlights to us on the forum.
(and congrats to everyone at Team Cassini of course!)

More plume images, though not quite as amazing.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...5/N00146846.jpg

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...5/W00061504.jpg


Enceladus + ring
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...5/W00061499.jpg

Traditional view of the plumes, + Saturn
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...5/W00061501.jpg

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...5/W00061500.jpg