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May 31, 2006

Saturn's Moon, Rocking and Rolling

EnceladusScience blog reports that the Cassini mission has discovered that Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn, rolled over at some point in time and the south pole is now the warmest spot on the little moon.  The telling factor seems to be ice jets spouting from pole, indicating warmer material moving in that area.

Observing The Moon

Rimae_petaviusTook my little 8" Vixen scope out last night and observed the Moon for a few minutes.  At least I tried to observe.  As I was looking at the rille system in Petavius, I noticed that a few clouds were starting to conglomerate and, at times, would block the Moon from view.  After a few minutes, the sky completely clouded over and seconds later it started to pour rain.  Thank goodness I was only a few feet from my open garage where I was able to quickly move the stuff inside.  It went from a nice clear night to rain within 5 minutes.

Anyway, I was able to clearly see the large rille that runs west of the central peak.  I didn't have time to take a closer look at higher power before the rain set in.  By the time the weather clears, it will be too far past the terminator to get a good look.