Iapetus transit of Saturn in 2022 – 30th April 4:00am Australia

[theskyhound]

I missed the top part of your earlier response that mentioned SPICE. I only saw what was below the quote. As a result, I wasn't aware anyone had definitive transit times yet. I was just trying to help based on the numbers I had happened to see during testing.

As for a weird orbit, I feel like you are calling me out or something? I just meant that in the context of the method I had attempted to use to predict the position, which failed so badly. That method was developed for distant satellites like Phoebe. I am working on a better approach today, which will hopefully get Iapetus back on track. Titan and Hyperion have already been tightened up through 2030.

[bigmasterdrago]

It did not occur to me that it would come out that way. I guess what I should have said was the other satellites mentioned have crazy high eccentricities and some retrograde orbits (high inclinations). Iapetus is close to the norm in this regard. When I was using SPICE to correct the positions in the other software, Iapetus would creep out of position by 300 meters in under 14 hours of simulation. All software can be improved but some like ST works well and quickly when used in the appropriate manner. Being that Iapetus is 10th mag and at the end of April, does not have stars that might be confused with it for a good week, it may be a non issue plotting its position.

[bellpilot2002]

Partial good news. I couldn't bear to look at Saturns rings while I was investigating the moon positions, so I fell deep into the rabbit hole... and finally fixed the rings!

I'll let you guys know tomorrow what I find out about the moons. Fixes coming soon.

Hi Greg,
Glad to hear you fixed the Saturn rings issue. That has been bugging me for a long time. But it is not fixed on my SkyTools 4 Visual Pro Edition with latest update 4.0j R12. Is there another update coming?
Thanks,
Doug

[theskyhound]

Doug, I'm still working on some fixes. There will be another update once I'm finished with them.

[Dennis]

In Brisbane, I woke up at 2:00am to the pitter-patter of rain, then woke up again at 4:00am to rain showers, so sadly, I missed this event.

Cheers

Dennis

[PMSchu]

Hi Dennis,

Sorry to hear that the transit was rained out in Brisbane. On the bright side, Greg has fixed the image of Saturn for a future update & improved the code for the positions of the moons. When is the next transit predicted to occur? I hope it's not like the solar transits of Venus. I was fortunate to get images of both of those, poor though they were.

Phil S.

[bigmasterdrago]

Hey Phil, for us it is July 18 ~05:30UT during the 2nd half of the event. Too low the first half.

The next one on December 23rd is daylight and below the horizon for use.

Then wait til late November 2035 where we will have good circumstances predawn except the end.

[PMSchu]

Thanks, BMD.

Phil S.

[Dennis]

Here is a link to images from Christopher Go and Tiziano Olivetti (scroll down the web page) showing the shadow of Iapetus.

https://alpo-j.sakura.ne.jp/kk22/s220429z.htm

Given the aperture of their respective telescopes, I wonder if my Mewlon 210 would have managed to pick this up.

Cheers

Dennis

[PMSchu]

Thanks for posting those nice images, Dennis.

Phil S.