...Also, how inclined the various orbits are. Titan is, of course, further from Saturn than the perspective makes it look here; its orbit is only inclined about a third of a degree (all those paintings showing a spectacular Saturn seen from Titan with wide-open rings are bogus for more than one reason).
One thing that others of these pictures make clear, but that surprised me a little, is that Janus and Epimetheus's weird swapping co-orbits are actually slightly more inclined than those of the ring-shepherd moons Pandora, Prometheus, Pan and Atlas. It's only a small fraction of a degree, but they're close enough to the rings that it is noticeable and makes the perspective of some of these pictures hard to interpret. Mimas is at about a degree and a half; then of the other major moons within the orbit of Iapetus, only Tethys is as inclined as much as a degree.
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Date: 2005-02-22 05:51 am (UTC)One thing that others of these pictures make clear, but that surprised me a little, is that Janus and Epimetheus's weird swapping co-orbits are actually slightly more inclined than those of the ring-shepherd moons Pandora, Prometheus, Pan and Atlas. It's only a small fraction of a degree, but they're close enough to the rings that it is noticeable and makes the perspective of some of these pictures hard to interpret. Mimas is at about a degree and a half; then of the other major moons within the orbit of Iapetus, only Tethys is as inclined as much as a degree.