[AANC Contacts] It's Saturn Time!

[Jones, Jane H (1862)]

Hello AANC friends!

My favorite planet is daring you to step outside and look at it this month!
It's easy to see from the city from now through July, the later the better.
In a dark sky, and through a telescope you'll see subtle cloud bands of
custard, butterscotch and hazelnut crème, and the wafer-thin ring bisects
the planet, allowing you to see its oblateness this month. What a tasty
treat for your eyes!

So it should come as no surprise that the topic of my What's Up podcast for
March 2010 is Saturn. But I also share the podcastspace with a challenging
object, the 12th magnitude (nearly as faint as Pluto) asteroid 21 Lutetia,
which is halfway between Saturn on the horizon and Mars (nearly overheard
and the color of a blood orange). I had a look at it last month, and by
month end it will be well placed right next to some pretty galaxies in Leo!
Next to M105 on March 31st, to be specific. :-)

Here are several podcast viewing options:

JPL's new Video Banner points to all the awesome JPL video products :-)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

SSE: Additional formats of my podcast, with several educational activities
about Saturn and asteroids to compliment the podcast, plus archives of all
33 podcasts back to April 2007
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-view.cfm?WUID=324

YouTube (the format favored by my mom and dad in San Rafael)
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#p/u/1/1dIe5_SvToE

NASA podcast page, RSS feed, Itunes
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/whatsup_index.html

Here's looking at you, Saturn!

Jane


Jane Houston Jones
Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program
JPL - 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 230-205
Pasadena, CA  91109  818-393-6435
jane.h.jones at jpl.nasa.gov
What's Up For March - Saturn Opposition, asteroid 21 Lutetia!
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-archive.cfm