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Hyperion Challenge for amateur astronomers
- DeirdreKelleghan
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19 years 3 months ago #15927
by DeirdreKelleghan
Hyperion Challenge for amateur astronomers was created by DeirdreKelleghan
Passing this on for the Cassini team.
Deirdre Kelleghan
Cassini Saturn Outreach
Some of you imagers might be interested in this.
The Cassini Spacecraft has several icy satellite flybys coming up in the next few days: Calypso at about 100,000 km on the 23rd of September, Tethys at 1,500 km on the 24th, and Hyperion at about 500 km on the 26th.
Cassini scientists are requesting photometric observations of Hyperion over the next several weeks. Hyperion is often described as a "chaotic rotator." Rather than tumbling, it appears that it keeps one spin axis for a while, but then gets perturbed and its spin axis changes. Photometric observations beginning right now and going through the Cassini flyby and until the end of October would be very helpful to the team.
Dr. Amanda Hendrix of our Cassini Science Planning group asked me to send this information out to amateur astronomers who might be interested in helping out with photometric observations. She says:
"We need closely spaced, reduced apparent R magnitude vs time (preferably UT but JD is also ok), starting now through the Cassini flyby (Sept 26), and until late October. The photometry results will be used to ultimately derive the current period of Hyperion, which will help with interpretation of the Cassini data. Reduced results can be sent to Dr. Bonnie Buratti (Bonnie.J.Buratti@jpl.nasa.gov). (The visual magnitude of Hyperion is 16.5, so serious photometry would require at least a 24-inch telescope.)"
Amanda has also talked to Elizabeth Waagen at AAVSO and also to Anne Verbiscur at University of Virginia, who have passed the request on to their respective networks - networks who have previously conducted observations such as this one.
I thought some of you might be experienced and interested. If you are, your contact for this project is Dr. Bonnie Buratti (email address above), I'm just sending out the request, so please send questions or results to Bonnie, not to me.
Jane Houston Jones
Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program
Deirdre Kelleghan
Cassini Saturn Outreach
Some of you imagers might be interested in this.
The Cassini Spacecraft has several icy satellite flybys coming up in the next few days: Calypso at about 100,000 km on the 23rd of September, Tethys at 1,500 km on the 24th, and Hyperion at about 500 km on the 26th.
Cassini scientists are requesting photometric observations of Hyperion over the next several weeks. Hyperion is often described as a "chaotic rotator." Rather than tumbling, it appears that it keeps one spin axis for a while, but then gets perturbed and its spin axis changes. Photometric observations beginning right now and going through the Cassini flyby and until the end of October would be very helpful to the team.
Dr. Amanda Hendrix of our Cassini Science Planning group asked me to send this information out to amateur astronomers who might be interested in helping out with photometric observations. She says:
"We need closely spaced, reduced apparent R magnitude vs time (preferably UT but JD is also ok), starting now through the Cassini flyby (Sept 26), and until late October. The photometry results will be used to ultimately derive the current period of Hyperion, which will help with interpretation of the Cassini data. Reduced results can be sent to Dr. Bonnie Buratti (Bonnie.J.Buratti@jpl.nasa.gov). (The visual magnitude of Hyperion is 16.5, so serious photometry would require at least a 24-inch telescope.)"
Amanda has also talked to Elizabeth Waagen at AAVSO and also to Anne Verbiscur at University of Virginia, who have passed the request on to their respective networks - networks who have previously conducted observations such as this one.
I thought some of you might be experienced and interested. If you are, your contact for this project is Dr. Bonnie Buratti (email address above), I'm just sending out the request, so please send questions or results to Bonnie, not to me.
Jane Houston Jones
Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program
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