You need to upgrade your Flash Player The theme of this blog is not only and obviously space, but in particular “terrestrial worlds”, places that tend to have surfaces on which one could walk or at least attach oneself to. These places sometimes also have other earth-like familiar features such as atmospheres, weather, volcanos, geysers and perhaps, we are finding, even exotic oceans, rivers or lakes that are not necessarily made of familiar materials we are used to here at home. The second theme is imagery. Occasionally I do some retouching of images when needed if an image is incomplete or sometimes “dirty” or noisy. I will attempt to correct image shortcomings based upon other images or well-accepted presumed attributes. When this is done, notes will be offered as to what was added, why and sometimes how it was done. This way no one should ever wonder if something they are looking at is real or photoshop.

Archive for the 'Saturn' Category

Its Been a While Since I Posted

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

How about some swirling clouds of Saturn?

Prometheus (the Movie)

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Yes, another movie of Prometheus disturbing Saturn’s rings. This is the longest clip and includes the most ring swinging action for your money. This version has been cropped and reduced down from the original. See here for a larger, wider view of the same animation (2M gif).

Saturnati XIX

Friday, November 28th, 2008

By the way… this is still the best Saturn image ever rendered.

Modern Art

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

At Closest Approach

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

At Closest Approach Oct 31, 2008

Sorry for the delay on this one… its remarkably similar to the last close approach images from August. This image, taken from 1,691 kilometers, also shows the areas surrounding the plume sources to be boulder strewn which suggests that occasionally some large sized chunks of internal Enceladus are ejected from within.

This approach and the previous only weeks ago are to be combined as a double research header. This encounter was largely for hi-res imaging while the previous was to “sniff” out the chemical composition of those plumes. The next close encounter (like this) for Enceladus will not be for another year, so lets hope these two encounters give us a clearer picture of what is actually happening inside this small wonder.

Check out this massive composite of the encounter released by JPL:

Oct 31 Composite

On the Way to Enceladus

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

On the Way to Enceladus

There was another up-close buzz over the plumes of Enceladus yesterday. Apparently the science team has been mum about the previous close shave a few weeks ago because they want to do a combined press release on both encounters.

The above image taken Oct 28, is a real nice warm up shot taken on its way to the encounter with Dione in the foreground.

Rhea Under Rings

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

saturn_rhea_oct08

Dramatic Saturn

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Saturn by Gordan Ugarkovic

Another by Gordan Ugarkovic. Will post a wallpaper version later. Too gorgeous.

Saturn Followed by a Moonshadow

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Saturn and Moonshadow by Gordan U

Another Gordan Ugarkovic beauty.

Enceladus From Oct 10 Encounter

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Enceladus Oct 10 2008

Images should have been out by now, so far only a small hand-ful. As mentioned previously, this was not going to be a image rich encounter.

Update: IMAX in a Basement

Friday, October 10th, 2008

imaxupdate

Its been a while since I have updated the progress on IMAX in a Basement, which features imagery from the Cassini mission. See youTube for a nice “Problems Solved” video that includes a sweet sweep across what looks like Enceladus toward Saturn.

Another Enceladus Pass: To Come Within 25km!

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Cassini at Enceladus

Tomorrow’s Cassini buzz of Enceladus is closer than ever not only at Enceladus, but at any other body in the Saturnian system. It is to come only 25km from the surface. It is to fly deep into the plumes, but this visit is more about smell than vision. Imagery is not expected to be as impressive as August’s pass despite the close proximity due to the spacecraft‘s instruments concentrating on particles and dust analysis and not pretty pictures.

Enceladus New View

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

Enceladus View from the South

This is a somewhat new view of Enceladus. Most global images we have seen show both the ridges and the cratered areas, whereas this image features almost exclusively the wrinkled terrain. Few craters are visible in this area which suggests that the details of its surface are quite young.

Mimas in Ring Shadow

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Tethys and Saturnian Rings

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Tethys and Saturnian Rings

Gordan’s reworking of images taken October of 2005. Strikingly gorgeous. I think we have at least one impressive dramatic color image of each of Saturn’s major moons with Saturn or its rings as backdrop at this point.

1. Mimas
2. Enceladus
3. Dione
4. Tethys (this one)
5. Rhea
6. Titan