"Eclipse and Mutual Events of the first Eight Saturnian
Satellites during 1993-1996 Period"
Jean-Eudes ARLOT
and William THUILLOT; Bureau des Longitudes / Paris
(e-mail: thuillot@iap.fr)
"Starting from July 1992, the apparent inclination of the orbital plane of the satellites of Saturn has begun to be small enough to induce phenomena. This configuration occurs every 15 years, and gives the opportunity to observe eclipses and occultations of the first eight Saturnian satellites by the planet. Moreover, in 1995 and 1996, the Earth and Sun will pass through the plane of the rings, and we will also observe mutual events [...]: the satellites will eclipse and occult one another. [...]
The observation of this type of event gives the opportunity to get astrometric measurement with a very high precision and will permit us to improve our knowledge of the dynamical motion of these satellites.
Furthermore, these observations are an interesting method for physical investigations concerning the atmosphere of Saturn and Titan, and they can be used for photometric study of the surface scattering.
We will organize a campaign and we call for observation of eclipses of the satellites by Saturn and for observations of their mutual events."