Hello astro people I have quite an interesting job doing outreach for the Cassini Mission, and I get the most interesting things in the mail. A few weeks ago I received a music score and recording of a middle-school band composition inspired by the Cassini mission to Saturn, called "Cassini's Rings". I sent it out to everyone here at Cassini, and they just went nuts over it. One of my co-workers plays in the La Canada Community Band - he plays the euphonium and sits in front of the tubas, but I digress. He asked the composer for permission to premier it here on the west coast and the community band is doing just that this weekend. I'll be happy to pass on the conductors contact info once school is back in session for any of you who might be interested in sharing it with your own school bands. :-) So here's the scoop: Michael Oare, Director of Bands at Great Bridge Middle School in Chesapeake, Virginia was inspired by the Cassini Mission to Saturn. He created a composition for middle school band featuring a melody based on the 7 major rings of Saturn: D, C, B (Bb), A, F, G and E . Michael writes "The spacecraft studies Saturn, its moons, and its famous rings. The major rings of Saturn are named, in order of their discovery, for the first seven letters of the alphabet. The letters (notes) D, C, B (Bb), A, F, G and E form the order of the rings based on their respective distance from the planet, closest to farthest. The melodic material in Cassini's Rings is based on this seven-tone row." My co-worker (and fellow amateur astronomer) Steve Edberg from JPL arranged with the composer, Michael Oare, and conductor Sue Hamre of the La Canada Community Band to present this piece on Sunday August 14th at La Canada's Memorial Park. Where: Memorial Park is on the north side of Foothill in La Canada two traffic signals west of Angeles Crest Highway When: Sunday August 14th. The concert including this piece begins at 5:00 p.m. This concert is part of the concert series held at Memorial Park every summer Sunday. What to bring: chairs or blanket and a picnic dinner. Jane -- Jane Houston Jones Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program JPL - 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 230-205 Pasadena, CA 91109 818-393-6435 jane.h.jones@jpl.nasa.gov Cassini Saturn Observation Campaign http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm