To those in the US, enjoy being together with those in your orbits :)

#thanksgiving #cassinispacecraft #cassinisaturn #insaturnsrings

This incredible Cassini spacecraft photographic mosaic puts everything in perspective. This is us, here on, in Carl Sagan's iconic phrase, this pale blue dot. From Saturn, all that can be seen of our entire world is a tiny spec of light blue.

#perspective #palebluedot #carlsagan #cassinispacecraft #cassinisaturn #cassinihuygens #insaturnsrings

Blast from the past. This was a resolution test for the first footage we output to IMAX film back in 2009. Obviously not scientifically accurate, but very 2001: A Space Odyssey style.

#cassinispacecraft #saturn #saturnmoons #2001aspaceodyssey #insaturnsrings

Here's the 2014 update of the 2010 original viral clip, it features our recording of Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber performed by the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (now ours for life thanks to Michael J. Malaska). https://youtu.be/UgxWkOXcdZU?si=jQD0NF-B972k00cx

#saturn #cassinispacecraft #animation #cassinihuygens #multiplanecamera #insaturnsrings

Beauty and Awe for today as we work on the director's cut!

#awe #saturn #space #spaceforabetterworld #cassinispacecraft #cassinisaturn #insaturnsrings

As our planet faces the recovery from the massive Helene hurricane (we are only two hours from the terrible destruction in Western North Carolina) and another CAT 5 bears down on Florida, Saturn too is not immune to massive storms. But hopefully no lifeforms at risk. Please donate what you can to support the recoveries here on our world. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

#saturn #cassinispacecraft #cassinihuygens #storms #hurricanehelene #hurricanemilton #ncdisasterrelief

We missed post this in September with everything else going on. But we were fortunate to be in person at JPL on this historic day, watching it happen with the Cassini-Huygens Team.

#cassinispacecraft #cassinihuygens #insaturnsrings #grandfinale #insaturnsrings

A little more history. When we found out the first one minute of Saturn flythrough footage had gone viral, it happened to be the exact same weekend of the very first public showing of the footage at the TriStar astronomy talks at GTCC here in Greensboro along with a presentation of about work on the film. Here are the first people to ever see the clip on a large screen.

#insaturnsrings #saturn #cassinispacecraft

At the time, this was just a shot of work in progress. But looking back, it was historic for the film. This is the actual After Effects project that was culmination of work from 2005-2010 to create an immersive flyby of Saturn using only Cassini photographs and multiplane animation. It was incredibly hard to figure out as it required 200+ layers for the rings. It remains the only such animation ever made.

#multiplane #multiplanecamera #cassinispacecraft #cassinisaturn #insaturnsrings

Crappy cellphone footage as I'm checking the fulldome transform master of the film that was done by Sky-Skan (now SSIA Technologies). They took the flatscreen (rectangular) of the film and applied a warp to it for fulldome playback. Looking at it on my monitor, it's obviously warped but when it's projected on a curved surface, it should "straighten" itself back out. I hope to test soon in a dome!

#fulldome #fulldomeprojection #fulldomepro #insaturnsrings #cassinispacecraft #cassinisaturn