The latest article is available Rev144 .

Lots to look forward to for icy moon/rocks fans (Mimas, Enceladus, Helene and Rhea)

I notice that there's a planned search for Mimas Lagrangians too, with constraints on the size of any putative co-orbitals being <50 metres if nothing's spotted in the two observations. My intuition (nothing more) is that it's unlikely anything will be found - I'd like to be wrong though...

I hope the Helene observations go as planned (closest-approach is ~28,000km) various reasons have conspired to cause the pointing to be a little off in two of the preceding obs.

Helene gets another very close flyby in June this year at ~7000km. I wonder if they'll have another crack with the 'skeet-shooting' technique during that encounter?

Jase

Nice images a Rhea-Dione mutual event:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/?sta...storedQ=2315808

The flyby is slow enough that Cassini wil be tracking Helene continuously on reaction wheels during approach, flyby and retreat -- no need to skeet shoot, which is just as well because we're not supposed to be doing it any more (too labour intensive)

Strictly speaking. a skeet shoot isn't automatically labor intensive. This is one of several sorts of observations where the Cassini project has to make a hard choice. Doing a skeet shoot without adding too much work would add wear on the reaction wheels (which is a bad idea, if we want the mission to continue until the end of the Solstice mission in 2017.) Finding a way to do a skeet shoot without adding wear on the reaction wheels is possible, but it would take quite a bit of labor on the part of the spacecraft team, and the extended mission work force can't really support that.

Perhaps the technique may be used sparingly for high priority targets (e.g. Enceladus) in the coming years.

Difficult to pick a winner from the latest dramatic sequence of Dione: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...6/N00167591.jpg

Now THAT'S scientific, artistic splendor...Thanks for bringing it to light...(and shade)

Here's a rough animation gif using a bit of morphing as well as a couple of synthesized images for the three in the sequence of twelve that were missing.

I'll post a link to a better YouTube animation as soon as it is uploaded. (please bear with me as I get better at this software)

Helene colour composite (IR-GRN-UV):

Click to view attachment

Stacked series of shots taken through polarizing and green filters:

Click to view attachment

The brown 'swirls' are very redolent of similar features seen on Calypso, I seem to recall.

This enhanced IR-GRN-UV composite of Mimas clearly shows the bluish equatorial 'stain':

Click to view attachment

Another nice Mimas image showing Herschel in profile on the limb.

John

Some nice Enceladus ones too: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...6/N00167673.jpg

(Great time for a Cassini image feast. )

Enceladus in IR-GRN-UV colour, illuminated by both Sol-shine and Saturn-shine:

Click to view attachment

I'm so happy More pictures of my favorite, small solar system body!

Great work, Ian R.

Mimas and the rings in IR-CLR-UV colour:

Click to view attachment

Thanks Jason!

Absolutely beautiful.

'Ello, 'Ello, 'Ello... what do we have here then?

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=232611

Is that Pan's backend hanging out of the rings?

Ah, the romance of space exploration...

And very interesting! Thanks.

Full Saturn night on Enceladus.
IR1-GRN-UV3 / stacked luminance
Click to view attachment

? here just below the blue mouse pointer ?
Click to view attachment

Seems like it could be Pan.
Click to view attachment

Cassini would be somewhere in the upper right quadrant at that time if so. Good find!

I'm having way too much fun matching those swirls with the features seen last March:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...8/N00152241.jpg
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...8/N00152245.jpg

Wonderful images Ian and ZLD!
Helene looks like if giant medusa (or alien's larvae?) is laying on it.

Ugh. Why did you have to say larvae? I can't get that image out of my mind now...

Here's a two-footprint mosaic of Enceladus from the recent flyby:

Click to view attachment

WoW!

P

Here's the full, four-footprint mosaic (assembled with a fair amount of jiggery pokery):

http://flic.kr/p/9fEQHh

Niiice!

Very well done Ian! I was hoping someone might take the time to do this mosaic, thanks!

You're both welcome!