dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (06/28/85)
A gibbous moon shines near the planet Saturn tonight. More on our moon and Saturn's moons -- in a minute. June 28 Saturn and the Moon Tonight's moon is called a gibbous moon. The side of the moon we see from Earth appears more than half sunlit -- but not quite a full circle. Tonight's gibbous moon will be visible in the sky until the hours before dawn. That golden point of light near the moon tonight is the planet Saturn. The moon is Earth's only large natural satellite. But there are countless objects orbiting Saturn -- innumerable icy moonlets making up Saturn's rings -- and at least seventeen larger moons -- some bigger than our moon. Five years ago the two Voyager spacecraft gave us marvelous close-up looks at Saturn's moons. As the Voyagers threaded their way through the Saturnian system, their television cameras returned images of the fully lit hemispheres of some moons -- partially lit hemispheres of others -- and even back-lighted views of Titan -- a large moon with an atmosphere. Each month we watch our moon cycle through its phases, as it moves in orbit around the Earth. From day to day, changing shadows on the moon highlight different regions -- different lunar mountains and craters. Like the surface features on our own moon, dramatic features of Saturn's moons were highlighted by their shadows when they were visited by Voyager. So look for the moon and nearby Saturn tonight -- and as you do, you might remember that until twenty-five years ago we'd never even seen the backside of our own moon. Now spacecraft have begun to reveal the wonder and variety of the moons of other worlds. Script by Diana Hadley. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin