Sixty-Four Scenes From Saturn (NASA Cassini Saturn Mission Images)

CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS

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MPEG 135.4 MB
Quicktime 78.9 MB
AVI 67.4 MB

Sixty-Four Scenes From Saturn

[For trouble viewing the movies, go here]

On June 18 2006, we commemorated the 64th birthday of former Beatle Paul McCartney by releasing on this website a brief movie, produced by Diamond Sky Productions, LLC, highlighting sixty-four of Cassini's most spectacular images, accompanied by brief passages from 24 Beatles songs. Unfortunately, not long after the movie was released, it was brought to our attention that we were in violation of copyright law in using even short segments of Beatles songs. We immediately withdrew it.

In the meantime, we continued to improve the production. We corrected some glaring editing glitches that made their way into the first version, we improved the quality of the video rendering and compression as well as the audio tracks, and we re-titled it to distinguish it from the first version.

We have posted it once again to this website, only this time without the soundtrack. Though seemingly pointless, this step was taken by popular demand. Many of you had asked to see the video, even absent the music, and it had the one distinct advantage that at least part of our efforts could be enjoyed, though we are extremely proud of the final edited soundtrack.

As a (poor) substitute, we are providing a description of the soundtrack: ie, a listing of the particular songs, the precise segments from each song denoted by their temporal signatures, their temporal locations in the video, and other important factors concerning the musical selection.

Maybe some of the more adventurous among you will take on the challenge of trying to reproduce for yourselves our labor of love.

Description of Soundtrack

A poster comprised of the images in the movie is available here. The individual images can be found here.

Credit: Diamond Sky Productions, LLC
Released: December 28, 2006
Image/Caption Information

Alliance Member Comments

Captain Chaos (Aug 9, 2010 at 12:18 PM):

Fantastic video! Pity that it has no sound, it really deserves a nice soundtrack. I put a remix up on YouTube with M83's Moonchild track, which I thought really fitting, both musically and thematically... :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1KKXmBnzG0

bassplyr98 (Nov 4, 2009 at 9:28 AM):

awww, we tried putting a link to you tube, but it isn't showing up here

bassplyr98 (Nov 4, 2009 at 9:27 AM):

well, we love the video and the new footage that we've been seeing. here is a link with another soundtrack, we hope you like it at least half as much as we liked your footage.

carolyn (CICLOPS) (Nov 3, 2009 at 1:33 PM):

bassplyr98: Hmmmm..... send an email to bobby@ciclops.org and find out from him how to download it. He's one of our tech guys.

bassplyr98 (Nov 3, 2009 at 12:06 PM):

We can't download it for some reason :(

carolyn (CICLOPS) (Aug 7, 2008 at 10:38 AM):

Jay55: Thanks but I feel like I'm there already!

Jay55 (Aug 7, 2008 at 2:31 AM):

Saturn has always been my favourite planet since I was 11yrs old when I first looked at it through a telscope. You never forget that. I couldn't sleep for hours that night after that. The beauty of Saturn lends itself to beautiful music, but what is beautiful music is often a matter of opinion. I agree with Kevin just play your own and what you think is beautiful.
If Aliens landed in front of me one day and offered me a ride somewhere in their spaceship I would have to say "Take me to Saturn, Titan and Enceladus please". Do you think thats asking too much? I might be pushing it too if could ask if I could bring Carolyn Porco with me because i have a feeling she would appreciate it. Jason (Sydney)

Lillyreyes (Aug 3, 2008 at 8:10 PM):

Good idea! I was thinking about it, too. I have the CD THE PLANETS in my classroom. We listen to it almost every day.
What I am really thinking about is writing a song dedicated to the beauty and majesty of Saturn! I am in love with Saturn
and I would love to go there!
Lillyreyes

rospa (Oct 18, 2007 at 11:50 AM):

Hello from Rome!
I feel like one of those "children" of Saturn now.
Grazie.

amoroso (Aug 31, 2007 at 1:42 PM):

What about making a soundtrack based on freely licensed music? The CICLOPS team might consider setting up a contest or soliciting donations from artists. I even have a name for such a project: "Lord of the Songs".

djbarney (Jun 27, 2007 at 7:49 AM):

You mean >>> Sony <<<< just want our money !

Refusing a few clips to the Cassini team ? One of the most advanced space projects that we've produced ever, so far ! I wonder if there'd be a few red faces in the Sony board room if this was pointed out to them, and they'd actually FIRE half their legal department ! But anyway, back to the images :)

DJ Barney

M Pierro (Jun 23, 2007 at 3:08 AM):

It is worth pointing out that these pictures are taken as part of mankinds ever expanding search for a greater understanding of our place in the universe and are freely available to look at in wonder. I chose the signature tune to 'The Sky at Night'

The Beatles just want our money.

delayna77 (Mar 17, 2007 at 5:53 PM):

I love the Beatles. I also love these images.

Popeye (Feb 21, 2007 at 7:34 AM):

Hello from France!

Certainly, the song are well choosed but the images from around Saturn in the space are so beautifull that they do'nt need music. Certainly the reflexion in higher with silence and the intensity greatet

carolyn (CICLOPS) (Feb 19, 2007 at 12:22 PM):

Moonsister...

That's what we first thought (that one could use short clips without copyright violation). But the Beatles' music is the most highly prized musical catalogue in existence, and apparently its owners are very litigious. So, we were advised to `lay off'. And Paul McCartney has nothing to do with this. He himself couldn't have given us permission to use his music. Michael Jackson no longer owns rights to the catalogue. He had to sell out his share to pay his legal bills. As I understand it, it mostly now belongs to Sony.

Dusty (Feb 17, 2007 at 6:16 AM):

Ahh this is neat. I think I can go from the Beatles to the Dead, to some New Age stuff and then back around to the Beatles..

What a nice labor of love!

Moonsister (Feb 16, 2007 at 7:57 PM):

I was told you could use 16 bars of a song without violatin copyright..hmmm. One might think Mr McCartney would pull some strings, (pun intended) and let the music play...These beauiful images are deserving of at least that much. Who owns the Beatles songs now?..last I heard it was Michael Jackson, and McCartney was trying to buy them back. Is this an urban myth?? Anyone??

Moonsister (Feb 16, 2007 at 7:55 PM):

sfair (Jan 31, 2007 at 5:29 AM):

Thank you a lot chris.
I think this kind of information could be put directly in the post. Or is there a easy way to get the link?

chris (Jan 30, 2007 at 1:16 PM):

sfair:

The MPEG can be directly downloaded at this location:
http://ciclops.org/media/tr/2006/2480_6877_3.mpg

Enjoy!

sfair (Jan 30, 2007 at 11:37 AM):

Is there a way to put the complete link for the video in the post? The file is large and could be useful to have download resume using tools like wget.

Ed Rolko (Jan 23, 2007 at 12:50 PM):

MPEG is the right choice for quality and resolution. Let's all be thankful this project was even done, and is still available now. The video was obviously done by volunteers on "their own time", and is completely wonderful despite having to be disassociated with the Beatles for legal reasons. ..........don't like the Beatles???, ...want mongs??? ...there's always Justin Timberlake or Jessica Simpson.

carolyn (CICLOPS) (Jan 20, 2007 at 11:47 AM):

And just what is a mong?

Louise Sharples (Jan 11, 2007 at 1:21 PM):

I think this presentation would be better served as a Flash animation instead of an MPEG video.

My mother used to talk about The Beatles all the time (she was born and grew up in Liverpool) but I personally can't see the attraction -- they look and sound like mongs to me. ;-))))

Kevin S. Moore (Jan 4, 2007 at 11:05 PM):

Now now, all you have to do is put a music CD in the player and watch the magic
of Cassini unfold in your movie. You are way beyound the Beatles. Far beyound.
But then it was not magic was it! It is the science and it is real!! I chose
to listen to Beethoven.

Kevin, 2nd shift

Go Cassini!!

BRENDAWEST (Jan 3, 2007 at 11:35 PM):

THANK YOU FOR THESE IMAGES. WE SHOULD BE SO LUCKY.

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