Ever put a playing card in the spokes of your bike tire, or hear a noise in the engine compartment of your car that sounded like something was hitting something it wasn’t supposed to be hitting? Or maybe you’ve heard a regularly spaced bumping or scratching against the house on a windy night and your mind filled with images of zombies trying to get in, only to find in the morning that it was a tree branch rubbing against the roof of the house!
That’s the sort of thing that’s happening over Saturn, where one of the planet’s many moons, the caplet-shaped Prometheus, continues to bump into the rings, leaving a pattern behind. My favorite mechanical space explorer, the Cassini orbiter, took this picture in early June. It was posted on the Cassini website yesterday.
I say this “isn’t supposed” to be happening, but who knows what is and isn’t in the grand plan? Or if there even is a grand plan? Based on your personal beliefs, you could claim the beauty of this pattern is proof that there is a God. You could say it is proof that God is more like us because He can’t get the thingy to stop hitting the whatchamacallit. Or you could point to it as a clear signal that things are randomly arranged.
Here you can watch a video of Prometheus touching the “F” ring of Saturn, pulling a wisp of material out of it and leaving a dark channel behind. Look underneath the photo for a movie choice of Quicktime or MPEG. There is what appears to be a blackout near the end of the 13 second sequence when the scene passes through the planet’s shadow.
Because the video image is oriented with the surface of Saturn below the bottom of the frame and the F ring arched across the top, one can easily imagine from its upward motion that the elongated moon is some sea creature, just breaking the surface of the ocean and causing a ripple to run towards shore.
Ever go whale watching?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Wilt Babooners:
Slow internet again this a.m. Maybe all the cosmic stuff Dale discusses today is messing up radio and internet waves the last several days. Yesterday radio reception and internet flow were miserable. Can’t watch any youtube this am–not working.
I’ve only whale watched from a distance on the shore at Oceanside CA in March 2009. Saw a few spouts. The surfers and brown pelicans in the foreground were really distracting, and easier to see.
LikeLike
The humidity causes internet waves to slow down. And noise waves to be louder. I’m sure of it. We’re near the airport and the planes today are deafening (as opposed to usual, when they are just annoying.)
LikeLike
Dale – i can see you have deep understanding of these mysteries. i’m in awe. thanks for the beautiful pictures. our satellite reception is slow this morning also. big storms approaching. will be a good morning – hope for all the ‘booners also!
LikeLike
Good Morning to All,
I did go whale watching in Churchill in Northern Canada on the Hudson Bay. I saw an amazing collection of dozens of Baluga whales swiming around and under a boat that sat fairly low in the water so we could look over the side and see the Balugas swimming near us. A few of the adult Balugas were carring immature Bulugas on their backs as they swam about.
The guide lowered a microphone into the water so that we could hear the whales making chirping sounds. Some of the whales swam toward the boat and went under it. Balugas are small compared to some whales, but they are big enough to make one a little concerned when they swim so close to you in a boat that is not much larger than a Baluga. This was an extremely impressive wild life display.
LikeLike
I wonder if this is the year Lake Superior gets warm enough to be comfortable for a normal person who wants to swim. It used to be warm enough for my daughter, but she isn’t normal. The northern tip of Bayfield County has been warmer this year than in any other I can recall.
On this cabin trip I saw three whitetail does, and each had just a single fawn. That shows us that winter was hard on local deer. In a warm and open winter, does often bear three fawns. Twin fawns is average. When they come into spring with just one fawn, you know winter was cold and snowy, denying them enough food to reproduce at typical levels.
My daughter got married four years ago this August. After the wedding we celebrated the union in a variety of ways for a week, ending up in beach house parked high on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We walked beaches barefoot, dogs scampering this way and that. Seals sported in the water and crawled out to laze in the sun. Just before we had to return to routine life, someone pointed toward the ocean. A pod of whales was passing by, blasting water out their blow holes to catch the sun and make rainbows. We thought there were six whales. It seemed a good omen.
LikeLike
Warm Lake Superior = No.
The warmest it gets is about Labor Day because it’s had the entire summer to warm up. And that’s only if the wind is coming off the land. It also makes a difference how far you go out from shore. Duluthians take a rather perverse delight in going down to watch the tourists on July 4th. They bake in the sun, scorch their feet on the hot sand, jump in the frigid waters, leap eight feet into the air before hypothermia sets in, scorch their feet on the sand back to their blankets, then quake in fear about moving at all…ever again.
LikeLike
The best way to get into Lake Superior is to jump in, not walk slowly in. You can’t chicken out that way 🙂 There’s a place we call Butt Rock where you slide down the rock into the water. Once you start sliding, you can’t stop. You have to go in the water. It’s fun 🙂
LikeLike
I swam in Lake Superior the summer of 1980. My friends and I swam out from the sandy beach located near Ontonagon, MI. We had traveled and camped and were glad for the opportunity to cool off. Yes, it was shockingly cold – made me feel really alive!
Love those Porkies!
LikeLike
Mu kids used to wade and sort of swim on the north shore near Silver Cliff in a little bay a friend owned. But they were young and without pain.
LikeLike
We’ve been on several boat trips that were taken with the intention of watching whales. The most successful one was three summers ago around the San Juan Islands (between Seattle and Vancouver). Tour boats are supposed to keep their distance from the animals and I don’t know if our captain was trying to make this happen or not, but we did have a while swim right underneath the vessel. That was a little spooky. I had dark visions of the whale tipping our boat just enough to knock some fresh meat off the deck and then quickly gobbling it up (five second rule!) Outlandish, I know. Our fears don’t have to be rational. I suppose it was the whale who was most endangered in that situation, not me.
By the way, I discovered that taking photos on a whale watching expedition is a waste of time. All I ever got was a picture of the stirred up water where the whale used to be. Today’s images of Saturn’s moon Prometheus are much, much better.
LikeLike
When I lived in Port Angeles just out of college, I saw whales the first time I walked the beach. Didn’t see whales again until I spent a couple nights in a 16th century farm/B&B on the Sogn Fjord in western Norway. I don’t know what the Washington whales were, the Norwegian whales that swam up and down the fjord surfacing frequently were Orcas.
But, I’m curious, Dale…how did you get from Saturn to whales? I best go read it again….
LikeLike
The Cassini video of Prometheus made me think of whales, Cynthia. But is it such an unreasonable jump? Perhaps Shamu and the Moons of Saturn have more in common than we suspect.
LikeLike
One of the numerous moons around Jupiter or Saturn is probably named Shamu.
LikeLike
I agree with Barb, Dale has shown us a remarkable image from space and I am empressed that he found a way to contected it with whale watching which caused me to remember a very unusual event and caused Steve to recall a very interesting experience his family had which was punctuated by very memorable display by whales.
LikeLike
Okay. We also have Dale’s interesting whale story.
LikeLike
Nere in the flock we often watch Mopple the Whale.
LikeLike
Dear Miss Maple – Mopple the Whale needs watching, I believe. He has been known to take risks, as well as to think and act on his own ideas, which is not very sheep like. Very bad example for the lambs.
LikeLike
Good morning all. On “vacation” this week working from a café in the Park Rapids area. I woke to an excellent morning storm with rain and thunder. I was thinking I should have stayed in bed listening to the storm until I walked out of the rain into the café as they were playing “Shelter from the storm”. I realized I had on my favorite Bob Dylan t-shirt. All is right in the world.
Twenty plus years ago, I did some whale watching from the back of a salmon seiner in Prince William Sound trying to stack the cork side of the seine. For a few brief seconds the whales took my mind off the jelly-fish-laden net raining down on my head.
Dale, I always enjoy your missives on celestial events. They are great reminders for me to keep my daily experiences in perspective. (Mike, queue “The Galaxy Song”.) With your zeal for all-things-astronomy, you must have a telescope. Given the right location, you could deploy the telescope both day and night, pursuing both heavens and ocean from a comfortable location.
LikeLike
Alas, Dan, I am not very patient when it comes to physical demands standing outside on a mosquito-rich summer night to squint through a tube. And I’m not very good at figuring out the true meaning of images. I have a great admiration for people who are knowledgeable about the stars and planets precisely because I am not one of them. That’s one reason I make regular visits to the Cassini website!
LikeLike
I’ve never been whale watching (yet) but the San Juan Islands is on my bucket list! Dale, you come up with the best astronomical images – this one is unbelievable. But as far as picking favorite mechanical explorers, what about plucky little Spirit and Opportunity?
LikeLike
Raised in Rock County by an alarmist mother, with few lakes available except gravel pits, I am a coward in a boat. My dad had a Lund fishing boat that he took to Lake of the Woods or the Missouri River, but I rarely went along. He couldn’t swim, even though the Army Air Corps made him a swimming instructor and sent him to an air base in Alabama just so he could play baseball for the air base team. He never wore a life jacket, and I often heard my mother bewailing his imminent drowning death when he went fishing. I also heard from her about the dangers of “drop offs” that seemed to abound in any lake I ever tried to swim in. You can imagine how this shaped my anxiety about swimming, lakes, fishing, boats, etc. I have agreed to face my fears this weekend, however, and I am joining my husband and one of our coworkers and his wife in their new fishing boat on the big lake here-Sakakawea, to actually fish and enjoy myself, I hope. Now you all can come up with jokes about three psychologists in a boat-How many psychologists does it take to catch a fish?
LikeLike
Renee – I hope you have a marvelous time fishing! Your Mom’s fear about your father’s potential death by drowning made me think of the Mark Twain biography I have been listening to. Twain said he knew that as a boy he had been pulled almost drowned out of the Mississippi River nine times. His mother’s comment on his poor swimming skills was, “Those destined to be hanged have nothing to fear from the water.”
LikeLike
That is a wonderful quite! Thanks so much.
LikeLike
Another bump in the night that should be noticed is the release of more that 90,000 secrete documents about the war in Afghanistan.
LikeLike
As I’ve never been to an ocean, spotting a whale has been difficult. I’ve seen them on TV and that’s it. I’ve always wanted to go whale watching, but getting to a coast takes money and time, neither of which I have. Maybe someday, but I won’t hold my breath until then. I enjoy gazing out on Lake Superior. It makes me calmer and helps me forget about bad, crappy days…
LikeLike
I have the same experience with Lake Superior, Alanna. I worked a summer in Grand Marais, and sitting out on the rocks staring at the lake was most soothing. (And fireworks over the little harbor there were spectacular.)
LikeLike
“like”
LikeLike
A Hyperspace Jump into Multiple-Choice
If I drift into Saturn’s rings,
It is only to escape other things.
When I dream of watching whales,
It is always the fault of that mind of Dale’s.
He takes us riding off into space,
And writes of rings with elegant grace.
Still he often gives us whiplash,
By suddenly jumping with so much dash
Into a question we cannot see coming
Multiple choice:
A. Last night he was out rumming
B. He keeps our brains busily humming.
C. His new book on science he must be drumming.
D. He keeps babooners from ever down-dumbing.
E. In unemployment his brain is now gumming.
F. None of the above, that is, write your own.
LikeLike
G. With fingers afore faces our noses we’re thumbing.
LikeLike
Way to go, Dale!!
LikeLike
I know I have mentioned this on here before, but my whate-watching history consists of standing on the beach in Barrow and Point Lay watching whales being cut up.
LikeLike
Whale watching has not, thus far, been part of my life experience. Perhaps once Darling Daughter is a little older and less of the household budget is paying for child care. Closest I’ve come, at least recently, is the Sparky show at Como Zoo. Not a whale in the ocean, but still fun.
LikeLike
Husband shared a whale watching story from another perspective. On a vacation to Seattle he and a friend went out early in the morning to do some fishing in Puget Sound. They had placed the anchor and were getting their gear ready when a whale surfaced next to their boat, and then dove. His friend, a veteran fisherman, sighed and said, “We will have to move out of here. We won’t catch anything. The fish are whale watchers, too, and once a whale shows up, the fish are long gone.”
LikeLike
When we were in Hawaii, it was the wrong time of year for wales. Saw a bunch of sea-turtles though…they were very cool.
LikeLike
That is a great quote.
LikeLike
Oops, that belonged up with Mark Twain.
LikeLike
I went whale-watching in (or off the coast of) Reykjavik, Iceland. It was August and we were all in shorts and, I swear, the stern of the boat had ice filming on it. The crew passed out bright orange snowmobile suits for us to wear. We did not see whales, but we saw pods and pods (?) of dolphins, and it was otherwise quite memorable. Iceland is the best place I’ve ever been, maybe.
LikeLike
How come cartoon whales are always smiling?
LikeLike
Evening everyone…
Had a nice rain storm here tonight; just the right amount of thunder and lightning. Got oats combined today… haven’t gotten it hauled in so don’t know yield yet…
Too tough (wet) to bale straw and now after the rain it’s really too wet to bale for a few days… that’s OK.
Whales. Nope. Spent part of our Honeymoon out in the San Juan Islands including three days on Whidbey Island waiting for our reservation at the Captain Whidbey Inn but didn’t see any whales…
LikeLike
Oats–right out of my childhood, but with binder and the separator. Ah, you moderun farmers!!
Now I’m the last to post.
LikeLike