The Rev47 Looking Ahead page is now online:

http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=3296

Among the highlights include:

* The last in the current sequence of Titan encounters over this part of the trailing hemisphere
* The second closest encounter with Tethys
* Non-targeted encounters with Enceladus and Mimas
* A Tethys-Enceladus mutual event

So, they won't be making any observations of little Methone? I'm a bit disappointed.

I see that the Titan mosaic used in this 'Looking Ahead' is the same as the previous one. Presumably there is a new one in the pipeline?

I'm pretty sure we'll get Methone images in rev 47. They'll be in the observations called SATELLORBS which seem to be of multiple small satellites per observation. SATELLORB observations don't explicitly indicate the exact target of the observation in the name which might be why those satellites weren't specifically named.

Isn't that just a lone OPNAV frame or two, using the clear filter?

I'm a little disappointed too - this is the closest Cassini comes to Methone from now on, (~12,000km) including the extended mission.
Still, mustn't grumble, we've come to expect a lot from this fantastic piece of hardware, and prioritising observations of all the instruments must be a nightmare.
I'll settle for a couple of opnavs from a bit further out.
Having said that, the NASA Cassini 'flybys' page lists a distance of 15,000km in January 2008, so little Methone may yet get her close-up (albeit only a few pixels across)

Maybe the phase angle of Methone during the encounter is unfavorable or perhaps it will be eclipsed by Saturn.

Unfortunately, no imaging will occur of Methone on Rev47. I have attached below at least what it would have looked like. Cassini will be preforming a radio occultation observation of Saturn's atmosphere at the time Methone observations would have been taken. Sorry guys.

Click to view attachment

Doesn't look like we would have seen much then.

About 30 min after the Methone C/A the phase is ~ 60 deg... but it still would only be 50 pixels across

And ... THere is an RSS OCC of Saturn going on at that time...

there are closer approaches in the Prime Mission 2008 DOY 15
and in the yet to be completely finalized XM
none of them have great phase angles at C/A
but the phase angles change rapidly around C/A

oops... that should say ~100 pixels in diameter

and here's a view of what would have been seen in the NAC FOV

Your Methone is too big. The satellite has a radius of approximately 1.6 km. I think you are using the values in the PcK kernel files, which just use a default 10 km radius value. So Methone would appear around 30 pixels across.

yep... the Rock PCK file dated April 2007 has it as 10 km still

we ( The Cassin Project ) can only use what gets published.
.. or put into IAU circulars....
and ISS is a bit slow in getting this info published and made
available ... even to the Project

Maybe they should spend more time writing papers and less time on Wikipedia edit wars

(Sorry volcanopele, couldn't resist )

--Emily

Hey I am trying to notch Lame Edit War number three under my belt.

Good grief - small moons, big disputes!

I wonder what would have happened if one of us was the first to recognize Daphnis
I remember seeing it in a series of images taken of the F-ring. (I mistakenly assumed it was Pan) I think someone else here also saw it.

If Carl Murray was "in the crow's nest," I think that makes us UMSFers rats on the ship

--Emily

yep, it would be interesting to see what would happen if one of us rats was the first to point out something of significance in the raws or better still an image from the PDS public release. On the other hand I think I'd prefer a quiet life :-)

You mean like discovering the return of the spokes in one of the raw images?

Besides just making great Cassin Images..... my bet is that there are
plenty of real discoveries to be made in the released PDS data sets.