Man, I’m funny.
But seriously, folks, Caroyln Porco, the leader of the imaging team for the CiCLOPS camera on board the Cassini Saturn probe is asking people to vote for their favorite images and animations. I have little doubt the blazing ring image will win, but there are other categories, so head over to the CiCLOPS site and vote. They’ll be announcing the winners on the last day of the year.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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December 5th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Voted! And oh, wow, those are indeed spectacular images. I suddenly have a whole new collection of background images to choose from.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:44 am
WOW! Somehow I missed that Saturn pic.
I just updated my wallpaper – until 1 minute ago it was the pic from the Japanese lunar probe.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Phil, you should really warn everybody.
Some of these pictures are huge.
Nothing for dial up modem users…
December 5th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Very cool. I have voted. I used to have “in Saturn’s shadow” as my wallpaper (until I got my digital camera – now I have a photo I myself have taken*).
* Of Earth**, not of Saturn.
** My favourite piece of England, in fact.
December 5th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Sorry, Doctor, but Titan’s always held a special place for me and so I have to vote with the picture with Titan past the rings, even if the color’s artificial. I’ve also always loved astronomical pictures with limited focus distances; I like it when one thing nearby is really sharp and something off in the distance is fuzzy. It adds, to me, a sense of scale that one simply doesn’t get in two-dimensional images that are all in focus (never mind if that’s what it would look like in real life as the human eye attempts to focus to infinity; the clearly three dimensional and possibly vertiginous aspect of that would make up for it then).
‘Course, I’m also voting for “New Titan Territory” (it has a sort of nice oldschool Schiaparelli Mars look to it), and “Exploring the Wetlands of Titan” so maybe it’s all because of Titan. Admittedly, though, being an unenhanced image “In Saturn’s Shadow” looks like it’s been passed through a Photoshop Glow Edges filter… and this is a good thing. ‘Tis beautiful.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
The blazing ring image was my vote. This was one of the final images Carolyn showed at her presentation at Spacefest 2007 in Mesa, Arizona. This image had the women around me crying!
Jim
December 5th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
This wasn’t easy! Some images I’ve never seen before. They ALL looked awesome!
Well, I narrowed it down. Hope to see the winner!
December 5th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
I hear the view from Iapetus is paranoid and jingoistic.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:26 am
I especially liked the video of a very close encounter with Iapetus – that encompassing ridge was intriguing from close up (oh, and it totally puts paid to Hoagland’s claim that it’s a wall!).
Centipede, I agree that the image of Titan all fuzzy with the rings and one of the small, irregular moons in sharp focus was awesome (but I voted for In Saturn’s Shadow, cos that pic has the Earth in it too). Maybe Titan really would look fuzzy because of the clouds? Oh, no, hang on – Earth does not look fuzzy from the Moon, and it has clouds. I guess it was a focal length issue then.
Jim Ortner said:
“The blazing ring image was my vote. This was one of the final images Carolyn showed at her presentation at Spacefest 2007 in Mesa, Arizona.”
Now that would be one hell of a finale to a presentation!
My only disappointment was that (of course) the Huygens images were not eligible to compete (I know, different vehicle, different team etc.). They may not be as beautiful, but the import of the first images of Titan’s surface is just mind-blowing.
December 7th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Um .. What was the joke with the title there? Afraid I don’t get it ..
Oh wait – *ring* in the new year vote on *Saturn*
Groan.
Now I get it I wish I didn’t …
December 7th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Hmnn .. We’re NOT at the New Year yet either.
Altho’ the moder nequivalent of the Saturnalia festival is at hand.
Hmmn .. Saturn~alia!
I can do that too …
Seriously Xmas is pretty much a redo of that old Roman solstice celebration plus a mix of pagan and Christian and other things.. Saturn was their God of the Harvest I believe.
& yeah, maybe I’m justgrumpy coz I’m just on dial-up too & using a next-to-useless, frustrating old computer .. Noprizes for guessingwhat I’d like for Satrnalia /Xmas /Hanujkkah . SolsticeCeleberation /Insert religious-social festival ofchoice here ..
Mind you looking forward to 2008 – & even more so to 2015 when ‘New Horizons’ reaches Pluto – all being well.