20 Jun
2008
20 Jun
'08
1:18 p.m.
Hey guys, I've been looking at the Java Script application that Sky & Telescope has concerning the positions of Saturn's moons. I note that it lists Enceladus as one of the visible moons while omitting Iapetus. The problem is, Iapetus was discovered more than 100 years before Enceladus (Cassini in 1671 vs. Herschel in 1789) because it's 2.8 times larger. Did Sky & Telescope make a boo-boo or is Enceladus's ice coating making it so much brighter than Iapetus that it's more easily discernable? I'm doing a PowerPoint presentation on Saturn at SPOC tomorrow evening that has a slide showing the relative positions of the Saturnian moons and I'd like to have it labeled correctly. Your expert help would be appreciated. Mike Wilson