Our Planet around Our Star

28th Earth revolution around the Sun since the owner of this website was born

The image above is taken from the famous Solar Walk software. The blue dot represents Planet Earth travelling around the Shiny Star, Our Sun.

Today Friday, July 19th, the Cassini spacecraft will photograph Earth through the rings of Saturn–and NASA wants you to jump into the shot.

“Cassini has photographed Earth before, but this will be the first time Earthlings know in advance their picture will be taken from a billion miles away,” says Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.  “We hope that people around the world will go outside to wave at Saturn while the photo-shoot is underway.“

Cassini’s cameras will be trained on Earth during a 15 minute interval that begins at 2:27 p.m. PDT (5:27 p.m. EDT or 21:27 UTC).

I so am excited about this rare opportunity on this historical Special Day to send photons of all of us waving at Saturn, I am encouraging everyone around the world to wave at Saturn today.

Todays July 19, 2013, image will be the first to capture the Saturn system with Earth in natural color, as human eyes would see it. It also will be the first to capture Earth and its moon with Cassini’s highest-resolution camera.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in Wave at Saturn contest, and specially to the ones who won. Winners will receive free telescopes from Explore Scientific. Congratulations..
Get the full story from Science@NASA. NASA JPL, FaceBook Page Event, NASA’s Cassini Mission to Saturn FaceBook Page

A massage from IAU Outreach:

Dear all,

Be in the photo – Friday 19th July: On July 19th, 2013 between 21:27 and 21:42 UTC, the NASA’s Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn will turn towards Earth and take a picture of Saturn, it’s rings, and the distant Earth and Moon in what has been called a Pale Blue Dot image (the first of this kind was the 1990 photograph by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers from Earth).

If you’re outside then, and can see Saturn then theoretically you’re in the photo. Earth will be about one pixel in the photo, so no need to dress up – unless you participate in the “Interplanetary Photobomb” and post photos of yourself waving at Saturn.

Photograph Saturn for a Great Mosaic. Submit widefield photos of Saturn appearing in the night sky above your local landscape; photos of people observing Saturn; photos of people with an image of Saturn in hand (having their portrait taken with the “star” of the show). Coordinated by TWAN, all approved images will be combined into a mosaic of what the Cassini image is expected to look like when it is released some six months later. The mosaic will be zoomable so viewers can zoom in and see the individual images from around the world. Everyone at any age from around the world are invited to submit images.

The diversity of locations, people, and compositions enrich the resulted mosaic. Telescopic images of Saturn are not the main goal of this project as they are beyond the capability of all but a tiny percentage of the world’s population. The submitted images should be made anytime through 22 July. You can submit older photos if they were taken during 2013. More information on the program page. Submit photos here.

Observe Saturn with AWB. When the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn takes its historic portrait of Earth on 19 July the world will be watching. Join Astronomers Without Borders in showing Saturn to as many people as possible. Check the July 19 events list or the world map world map if you are looking for an event in your area to attend and if you are organizing an event for The Day the Earth Smiled register here.

Message to the Milky Way. If you are a photographer or a music composer this is your chance to transmit your peace of work to the universe; a message that might eventually arrive to intelligent inhabitants of others worlds in the galaxy; a work of art that describe our life and planet Earth along with other contents of this galactic message. The two connected contests are held in association with Cassini’s imaging of Earth on 2013 July 19. The winning entries will be Chosen in worldwide competitions sponsored by Diamond Sky Productions and guided by illustrious group of Advisors, will be included in a digitally encoded message that will be broadcast into the galaxy from the most powerful single radio telescope on Earth, the 305-meter Arecibo dish in Puerto Rico, on the anniversary of The Day The Earth Smiled. The images should be an original work, taken on July 19, 2013, that best visually illustrates what makes planet Earth unique in our solar system. The original piece of music should present the spirit of The Day The Earth Smiled and puts to music that ancient human longing to understand the meaning of our own existence. See the Message to the Milky Way page for more information.

Resources:
– The World at Night Saturn gallery, featuring a unique collection of images from around the globe presenting planet Saturn in the starry sky of the Earth. twanight.org/saturn
– Saturn Mosaic Project on Astronomers Without Borders
– An Observing Guide to Saturn on Sky&Telescope website
– Saturn in Your Kitchen and Backyard (classroom activities for educators), by Cassini Outreach Team
– Read 7 Billion People And Trillions Of Creatures To Be Photographed Together On July 19, by Robert Krulwich, the National Public Radio

Please send us your input to info@astro4dev.org for the next newsletter which we will aim to send out on Friday 26th July 2013.

Clear skies,
On behalf of the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach,
JC & Kevin
www.astro4dev.org

Ramadhan Kareem

Please make Special Duaa  while waving at Saturn