I'm sure a lot of folks were watching, but for those that weren't, Cassini made it into Saturn's orbit as planned. Everything went pretty close to text book perfect. Pics of the rings should start coming in first thing in the morning (around 7 EDT).

Just wanted to be one of the first to share the info!

Bright Blessings & Gentle Breezes,
Jim Walczak

I'm looking forward to seeing the images from the close approach.

Does anyone have a good URL for seeing the images as they come in? The best I could get was this one, which [at this time] has no images after June 22nd.
Cassini Raw Images

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I've been watching NASATV for nearly an hour & have seen many of the images that Cassini has been sending back of the rings!!

The transmission has just finished & will start again later but as I´ll be at work I won´t be able to see any more.

But what I have seen are tremendous images which no man has ever seen before today!

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antoniseb: CICLOPS (Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations) url is http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/

Thanks ziwk, and welcome to the forum.
I saw half a dozen close-ups of the rings. Wow.
The horizontal stripes from the imager are a little distracting, but generally, these are great pictures [except the first one that I can't really figure out what it is looking at.

It's amazing to see the details of the resonances near the edge of the ring, and how sharp the ring's edge is. The shot showing the middle part of the ring looking like grooves on a phonograph record is also amazing.

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Just a note about the coverage from mainstream European TV.
Italian state TV told that Titan has an "Earth-like" atmosphere...
Spanish state TV instead called the probe "European-American", forgetting the sizeable contribution given by ASI, the Italian Space Agency.
Anyhow, all networks didn't give much more than a minute to the story, with the usual simplistic approach... quite disappointing, considered the magnitude of the event.
We've got a long way to go before mainstream audiences aren't treated as stupid children anymore. At least in Europe.

The Cassini raw images site is not very navigatable. Wish they would make it much more like the MER site.

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Awesome awesome awesome!

I've got to say, I've been more looking forward to Cassini's arrival than even the Mars rovers. This spacecraft is going to be delivering discoveries on such a regular basis. And I'm so excited about Huygens getting a chance to look under Titan's atmosphere.

The imaging people need to get working on a big full-colour photo of Saturn when Cassini was at its closest point.

I agree, the raw images site isn't that great. Here's a link for everyone:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...s/raw/index.cfm

You have to do really obscure searches. They should just have a gallery of the latest pics.

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Hi All,
I've been watching the pics come in all day and as Fraser says Awesome just Awesome.
For anyone who wants a different view of the approach and orbital insertion go to

www.saturn.esa.int

There are some truly fantastic views here. Keep watching that screen!!!
jsc248.

Hi I seem to have been waiting a lifetime for cassini to get to Saturn now its there........ lets hope it performs like the Voyagers did.

Fergal

Jsc, no offence but you got the URL a little wrong...

http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Cassini...gens/index.html

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These images are (i was going to say out of this world but that would have just been silly!) completely amazing! every image get's a "wow".

I also heard the sound of Cassini going through Saturns magnetosphere (i think). That was absolutely incredible. Did anyone else hear that?

Also ... what's with these wobbles at the edge of the ring we see here?

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OMG! That's bizarre! It looks like a crinkle-cut chip LOL

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When I got home from work (00:30 a.m.) the first thing I did was to turn on the computer & go to NASA TV live to see if there were any more images from Cassini & its pass through the ring system.

There was a press conference going on & in the course of the conference they played back sounds obtained by Cassini & they explained just what they meant. I found it very interesting.

You are quite right, Josh, they were sounds made by the waves coming from Saturn´s magnetosphere. Pretty amazing!

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The images were amazing ! And next year, Huygens will LAND on Titan! Making it the first probe to land on the surface of a moon that orbits another planet. Cassini/Huygens was a JOINT venture of NASA and ESA. Hopefully, it will become one of the first few steps taken towards a International Space Agency (ISA).

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I think the images we have seen from Cassini of Titan are pretty amazing so I just can't wait to see the images the Huygens probe will take early next year. It will be an amazing feat if all goes as well as it has up to now with Cassini. This spacecraft has done some amazing things up to now - like the spectacular images of the rings as it passed through them only a week ago. I saw some of them as they arrived on NASA TV live! I´d really love to see the same thing happen with Huygens as it descends on Titan.

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