Hi all

It's been a long time since the last interview on IceInSpace, but I'll try and find time to do them more regularly in 2009. This interview is with Simon O'Toole, extra-solar planet hunter working at the Anglo-Australian Telescope, and is one of those at the forefront of this new research and is part of a team who has discovered more than 30 planets orbiting other stars.

I talk to Simon about his discoveries, the methods used to find extra-solar planets, and what the future holds in this exciting field. Will we find another Earth?

Read the interview with Simon O'Toole.

Transits of one of Saturn’s Moons or the Moon’s shadow across Saturn’s disk are very rare events. Due to the tilt of the ring plane, we are only able to observe these events once every 14-15 years, when the rings are “edge on” as seen from our location on Earth.

Right now, we are in the middle of a “ring plane crossing” and in 2009, there are 4 visible transits of Saturn’s largest Moon, Titan, across the face of the planet. The first one occurred on January 24th, and I was fortunately able to capture 3 images to create an animation.

There are 3 more upcoming transits of Titan across the face of Saturn, on February 9th, February 24th and March 12th 2009. I've written an article listing the exact times, where and how you can see it, and includes a simulation showing the position of Titan while transiting Saturn. Read it at:

Upcoming Transits of Titan at Saturn - February and March 2009

I hope you get clear skies to observe (and photograph, if that’s your thing) these rare events! Please post your observing reports in the Observational Astronomy section and your images in the Solar System section of the forums

Thanks for reading.