Here is an image of the planet Saturn as seen from our back garden in Brisbane, taken through my Mewlon 210 telescope on the evening that the Cassini spacecraft made its fateful plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, ending this incredible mission just one-month shy of Cassini’s 20th launch anniversary.
The spacecraft and its impact are well beyond the ability of my telescope to resolve, so no live crash-and-burn photos.
It was a poignant evening, gazing at the images on my computer screen as Saturn appeared to dance to the tune of the scintillations caused by the jet stream’s impact on the Earth’s atmosphere.
I watched Saturn with binoculars during the last few minutes through the sucker holes in the clouds. At 2156hours the sucker holes closed up....
After following this mission since before the launch date, I felt an emptiness !!!
There was nothing to see burn up. Watch the NASA live feed.
According to the NASA live feed, it did not burn up as there is no oxygen in the atmo to support combustion, rather it vapourised in the friction which produced extreme heat. So likely there was no visual light trail to capture, although IR might have been detectable.
The NASA live feed did show the X and S band signal graph coming from Cassini, and the telemetry report on thruster activity (which indicated Cassini fighting against the atmo drag). The thruster activity gradually became fast and faster till it was constant as Cassini fought to maintain stability for broadcast. After the red line of the thrusters the X and S band signal levels rapidly dropped away to lose of signal at approximately 1000 miles above the could tops.
I suggest watching the NASA live feed on utube, it is comprehensive and you can move forward on the time line bar to jump to parts that are most interesting. It's about an hour long, with the atmo entry in the last 15 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Ho30EMRm4&t=3955s
I found it interesting and just a little kinda sad watching the live NASA feed last night. Also had open the Deep Space Network site and watched as the signal from Canberra went dead......
I just added some more IR642 data to my Saturn LRGB image and after performing Digital Development in PixInsight and “Add Space Object enhancement” in Photoshop CC, noticed a strange, geometric object in the bottom left hand corner – I wonder if this could be a candidate for the Cassini Spacecraft!
I just added some more IR642 data to my Saturn LRGB image and after performing Digital Development in PixInsight and “Add Space Object enhancement” in Photoshop CC, noticed a strange, geometric object in the bottom left hand corner – I wonder if this could be a candidate for the Cassini Spacecraft!
Haha little Cassini there, so funny, that's a treasure, why not include it too so worthy of the occasion!
Dennis, your Saturn image is fantastic .
All wonderful pics, Tony, Marc and Dennis, thank you so much for sharing them, wow, these were great to see. Even if nothing got spotted, isn't it special you observed and captured images of Saturn at this time.
So sorry Tony that you guys weren't able to see anything, the Evans 30"scope was the biggest on the job to my knowledge so I was really looking forward to the results. Still.... you got to have a great moment with a magnificent telescope, enjoying Saturn at this time, so you've got to be happy with that .
As for me... with all the work I did trying to find scopes for this event and all the update work on our fb page, incl. the event page........... I didn't get to see Saturn at all .
I've been so sick, why now, life is just not fair . Today I finally went to the doctor after 5 days sick with a nasty cough keeping me up every night, which has hugely escalated my normal asthma levels so I've been round the clock on Ventolin nebuliser machine, and he told me that I have an upper respiratory tract chest infection and has put me on prednizone and targeted antibiotics. It would've been health suicide for me to go out in the cold late at night and believe me, I had to fight myself not to, I'm still trying to get over not having that moment with Saturn . But you know what, oh my gosh, seeing these pics brought such a great smile to face.
According to the NASA live feed, it did not burn up as there is no oxygen in the atmo to support combustion, rather it vapourised in the friction which produced extreme heat. So likely there was no visual light trail to capture, although IR might have been detectable.
The availability of visual light has nothing to to with the (un)availability of O2.
Otherwise, we won't see any stars.
Extreme heat results in emission of blackbody radiation and any object emits visible light from 500ºC onwards, starting from dull red. The friction of Cassini in the asmosphere would likely generate temperatures above 1500ºC which is easily visible, but barely from Earth as it is too small an far away. Possibly a large space scope like JWST (6.5m across) might have detected it.
Such temperatures decompose parts made of complex chemical compounds, like plastics, but the metals mostly just melt. But later on, after being dispersed in the atmosphere all small particles will cool down (and molten metals freeze) and fall into the methane / ammonia / hydrogen ocean on Saturn.
And: plutonium will be a new chemical element on Saturn as the onboard energy supply is nuclear based.
Haha little Cassini there, so funny, that's a treasure, why not include it too so worthy of the occasion!
Dennis, your Saturn image is fantastic .
All wonderful pics, Tony, Marc and Dennis, thank you so much for sharing them, wow, these were great to see. Even if nothing got spotted, isn't it special you observed and captured images of Saturn at this time.
So sorry Tony that you guys weren't able to see anything, the Evans 30"scope was the biggest on the job to my knowledge so I was really looking forward to the results. Still.... you got to have a great moment with a magnificent telescope, enjoying Saturn at this time, so you've got to be happy with that .
As for me... with all the work I did trying to find scopes for this event and all the update work on our fb page, incl. the event page........... I didn't get to see Saturn at all .
I've been so sick, why now, life is just not fair . Today I finally went to the doctor after 5 days sick with a nasty cough keeping me up every night, which has hugely escalated my normal asthma levels so I've been round the clock on Ventolin nebuliser machine, and he told me that I have an upper respiratory tract chest infection and has put me on prednizone and targeted antibiotics. It would've been health suicide for me to go out in the cold late at night and believe me, I had to fight myself not to, I'm still trying to get over not having that moment with Saturn . But you know what, oh my gosh, seeing these pics brought such a great smile to face.
Hi Suzy
So sorry to hear that you were unwell.
Look after yourself and take the time to recover fully before you plunge back into the demands of daily life.
Haha little Cassini there, so funny, that's a treasure, why not include it too so worthy of the occasion!
Dennis, your Saturn image is fantastic .
All wonderful pics, Tony, Marc and Dennis, thank you so much for sharing them, wow, these were great to see. Even if nothing got spotted, isn't it special you observed and captured images of Saturn at this time.
So sorry Tony that you guys weren't able to see anything, the Evans 30"scope was the biggest on the job to my knowledge so I was really looking forward to the results. Still.... you got to have a great moment with a magnificent telescope, enjoying Saturn at this time, so you've got to be happy with that .
As for me... with all the work I did trying to find scopes for this event and all the update work on our fb page, incl. the event page........... I didn't get to see Saturn at all .
I've been so sick, why now, life is just not fair . Today I finally went to the doctor after 5 days sick with a nasty cough keeping me up every night, which has hugely escalated my normal asthma levels so I've been round the clock on Ventolin nebuliser machine, and he told me that I have an upper respiratory tract chest infection and has put me on prednizone and targeted antibiotics. It would've been health suicide for me to go out in the cold late at night and believe me, I had to fight myself not to, I'm still trying to get over not having that moment with Saturn . But you know what, oh my gosh, seeing these pics brought such a great smile to face.
Hi Suzy,
Thank you for posting the original link to Ralph Lorenz's arViX paper. That got the show on the road. The rest is now history.
On a personal level, it was fun and enjoyable, and held a lot of interest. On a club level, it was a good activity and keeps us all in touch with each other and the equipment we have opportunity to use. It also keeps us in touch with what's happening in the scientific community. All these are good goals, even if the science goal was not achieved.
Cassini is still intact. I have it on good authority that the Saturnalians have their own version of Area 51, where the ship is currently being dismantled in the vain search for astronauts to probe.
Look after yourself and take the time to recover fully before you plunge back into the demands of daily life.
Cheers
Dennis
Thank you so much Dennis for the very kind and caring words. I've been taking it is easy and trying not to exert myself. My digits flying across the keyboard on the other hand are getting a thorough workout .
TO EVERYONE: HEADS UP TONIGHT
Catalyst tonight on ABC TV at 8:30pm will feature the Cassini Mission
. If you miss it, you'll be able to catch up on ABC I-View.
The Catalyst doco on the Cassini Mission on tonight as with the Voyager doco a few weeks ago were excellent programs highlighting how much more we have learnt about our solar system because of the data and images returned.
Thoroughly entertaining and illuminating, will happily watch them again.
Hi Jeff, yes, wow, what a brilliant show it was tonight. I especially loved towards the end when filmed from Canberra DSN showing the signals as they faded out, it gave me chills. Oh, and Carolyn Porco (was she in her basement?) with a ton of large Cassini images hanging down as she showed off some very special ones. But everything was great about the show, it had me frozen watching it. Definitely worth another watch, I recorded it.
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. Today I finally went to the doctor after 5 days sick with a nasty cough keeping me up every night, which has hugely escalated my normal asthma levels so I've been round the clock on Ventolin nebuliser machine, and he told me that I have an upper respiratory tract chest infection and has put me on prednizone and targeted antibiotics. It would've been health suicide for me to go out in the cold late at night and believe me, I had to fight myself not to, I'm still trying to get over not having that moment with Saturn 
. But you know what, oh my gosh, seeing these pics brought such a great smile to face.
