Astronomy Picture of the Day - Saturn, Tethys, Rings, and Shadows

APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 23 Jan, 2022 | Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Seen from ice moon Tethys, rings and shadows would display fantastic views of the Saturnian system. Haven't dropped in on Tethys lately? Then this gorgeous ringscape from the Cassini spacecraft will have to do for now. Caught in sunlight just below and left of picture center in 2005, Tethys itself is about 1,000 kilometers in diameter and orbits not quite five saturn-radii from the center of the gas giant planet. At that distance (around 300,000 kilometers) it is well outside Saturn's main bright rings, but Tethys is still one of five major moons that find themselves within the boundaries of the faint and tenuous outer E ring. Discovered in the 1980s, two very small moons Telesto and Calypso are locked in stable along Tethys' orbit. Telesto precedes and Calypso follows Tethys as the trio circles Saturn.

[jmacusa]

Years ago I used to go out to Pulpit Rock Observatory just outside of Allentown , PA. with my n brother-in-law. He was a member of the astronomy club. The observatory is on top a large mountain that is also home to a (now) defunct Boy Scout camp. Nice area for hiking though. \ We were inside one of those very large rotating domes most people associate with observing the heavens.

Haven't been up there in quite a long time.

Maybe I'll talk to him about going back to the Observatory in the Spring.