Four of Saturn moon's to transit Saturn's face 2-24
This probably deserves a special heads up, even if Patrick has already qued this up for the news. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/19feb_quadrupletransit.htm?list89139 "On Feb. 24th, there's going to be a quadruple transit of Saturn's moons," says Keith Noll of the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute. "Titan, Mimas, Dione and Enceladus will pass directly in front of Saturn and we'll see their silhouettes crossing Saturn's cloudtops—all four at the same time." - Kurt P.S. - Probably a result of that end-on view of the rings that we now have.
Exactly. See it while you can. On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:
This probably deserves a special heads up, even if Patrick has already qued this up for the news.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/19feb_quadrupletransit.htm?list89139
P.S. - Probably a result of that end-on view of the rings that we now have.
I've been scooped! :) Actually I do have it in the draft for tomorrow's issue but I was hesitant to mention it here since I think Utah is a bit too far west to see it. Someone may want to check my figures but if I entered all the data correctly, it looks like Titan's shadow ingress at 03:54 MST will be visible from Utah as Saturn will be about half way (44 degrees) up the SW sky. Same for Titan's ingress at 04:34 when Saturn will be 37 degrees up in the SW. But by the time all four satellites are in front of Saturn (07:24) Saturn will be a mere 6 degrees above a flat horizon (below mountaintops for many Utahns) and the Sun will just be rising. However, from Hawaii (hey, Rob, you listening?) all four will be in front of Saturn when Saturn is still half way up the sky and the Sun about 35 degrees below the horizon. patrick
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:
This probably deserves a special heads up, even if Patrick has already qued this up for the news.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/19feb_quadrupletransit.htm?list89139
P.S. - Probably a result of that end-on view of the rings that we now have.
participants (3)
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Canopus56 -
Chuck Hards -
Patrick Wiggins