Get ready to wave and smile everyone!
We're about to be snapped by the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn 1.44 billion km away, for what will be a truly iconic image of our blue planet and Saturn together.
Also! The Messenger spacecraft orbiting Mercury is getting in on the act too (see further down for details)!
If you have children, I'm sure they will love to take part in this and embrace a treasured memory as they remember looking towards Cassini, waiving, and having an iconic image of our home planet and Saturn being snapped together. The Cassini team are encouraging people, esp. children to take pics doing the wave and send them in- they want to make a special collage of all these images if they get enough of them.
WHERE TO LOOK FOR SATURN: Wave at the ground (yes, funny I know- we do live in the land down under after all haha), face east and a little to the south. If you don't want to read thru all the links in my article below, at least read
Ian Musgrave's link as it's very easy to understand:
http://bit.ly/1128UhW
Here's where to go regarding sending the pics:
https://www.facebook.com/events/650683051626720/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/wave_at_saturn/
WHEN:
On July 19 between 21:27 to 21:42 UTC (5:27–5:42 p.m. EDT).
Australia, we're down for a morning wave on Saturday the 20th.
Cassini has already accounted for the 80 minutes it takes light to travel from Earth to Saturn, so the times given above and in the link below are the times to wave.
WHERE THE CAMERA WILL BE POINTING:
If you are on the sunlit side of Earth at the time – North America and part of the Atlantic Ocean -- you are in the picture. The western part of Africa and Europe will also be facing Cassini's cameras, but they will be dark.
Here's where to wave if you live in the above area:-
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/waveatsaturn/viewing/
There have been only two images of Earth taken from the outer solar system in all the time we've been exploring space. The most distant one being "The Pale Blue Dot" snapped up by the Voyager spacecraft 23 years ago from 6 billion kms away.
Everything you need to know for this event is supplied in the following links.:-
Astroblog's Ian Musgrave has got some terrific information, including where to look in Australia. We'll be waving at the ground lol.
I like Ian's take on it: "And, well, Earth will be just a dot, so it doesn't really matter if you are waving at the ground, it's getting out there and participating in a historic moment, one of the handful of portraits of Earth taken from a distant spacecraft. Later you can look at the image and say "I was waving when that happened".
http://bit.ly/1128UhW
Times for the different countries:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/waveatsaturn/timezones/
A simulation of what Earth will look like from Saturn and another one showing which part of the Earth will be illuminated as Cassini takes the pic, along with more information:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/waveatsaturn/
Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait has done a great article here:
http://slate.me/10x0jFZ
Visit the facebook page:
NASA's Cassini Mission to Saturn
MERCURY'S MESSENGER SPACECRAFT:
Inspired in part by the Cassini team's plans to obtain a picture of Earth, scientists reexamined the planned observations of NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Mercury. They realized Earth is coincidentally expected to appear in some images taken in a search for natural satellites around Mercury on July 19 and 20. Those images will be taken at 4:49 a.m., 5:38 a.m. and 6:41 a.m. PDT (7:49 a.m., 8:38 a.m. and 9:41 a.m. EDT, or 11:49, 12:38, and 13:41 UTC) on both days. Parts of Earth not illuminated in the Cassini images, including all of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, will appear illuminated in the MESSENGER images. MESSENGER's images also will take a few days to process prior to release.
Read More:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news...lease20130718/
Check out the Earth From Space gallery:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/waveatsaturn/gallery/
Happy Saturn waving everyone, enjoy and embrace this historic event!
-Suzy.
