Griffith Park is a popular spot for photo shoots, but it is pretty rare when the subjects and the photographer are almost 900 million miles apart.

More than 100 people wave to the Cassini spacecraft and Saturn from the Griffith Observatory last Friday. (photo by Aaron Blevins)

That was the case last Friday, as Southern California residents at the Griffith Observatory said “cheese” for NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which is on an extended mission to study Saturn and its rings and moons.

Participants did the “Saturn Wave” for a few minutes between 2:27 and 2:42 p.m., when the Cassini camera’s shutter would be open and directed toward Earth. Laura Danly, the curator at the observatory, said the light bouncing off Earth would take 80 minutes to arrive at Saturn.

“This one will be a long, historic image, and you and all of us will be in it,” she told a crowd of more than 100 people. Danly added that very few photos have been taken of Earth from deep space.

The robotic spacecraft is in the midst of its third trip to Saturn, according to a NASA press release. Cassini completed its first mission to the planet in 2008, and its first extended mission in 2010. The second extended mission, called the Cassini Solstice Mission, will continue through September 2017.

According to the release, the mission is named after the Saturnian summer solstice that will occur in May 2017. The spacecraft reached Saturn just after its northern winter solstice, so the mission will be the first to study a full seasonal period on the planet.

Cassini launched in 1997 and landed on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2005. It launched with the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe, which was equipped with six instruments to study the moon.

On Friday, Danly said the spacecraft would be photographing Saturn with Earth as a tiny dot in the background.

“So we on Earth are ‘photo-bombing’ Saturn,” she said, adding that Saturn was rising 12 degrees above the horizon in the east as she spoke. Danly said Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light, which is why Earthlings can’t see the planet during the day.

Danly said the 900 million mile distance between the Earth and Saturn makes it 10 times further away than the sun. To demonstrate, observatory staff members used the scaled model of the solar system on the front lawn, using astronomical observer Tony Cook as Earth, astronomical lecturer David Reitzel as Saturn and director Ed Krupp as the light traveling between the two.

“He can’t quite travel at the speed of light, but we also don’t want it to take eighty minutes,” Danly said of Krupp.

The staff members then did a countdown to prep for the photo, and patrons did their best to be seen from deep space. Bitely Elementary School student Wesley Szeto waved extra hard.

“I’m really excited — because I get to be in a photo,” he said, adding that the observatory is “really awesome.”

Arlo and Lisa Arcinas, of Long Beach, were visiting the observatory and opted to participate. They joked that they would be easily recognizable as the dots next to the observatory steps.

“[It’s] something different, something unique,” Arlo Arcinas said. “It’s serendipitous we’re here.”

After addressing the crowd, Danly said the event was a great opportunity to raise awareness for NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) projects — and the technology they have. Many in the crowd were unaware that a spacecraft was studying Saturn.

“It’s extremely fun,” she said. “It’s a beautiful summer day. How often do you get to be in a picture taken by a spacecraft nine hundred million miles away. It’s a wonderful and fun thing to do.”

Danly said pictures have been taken of Earth from deep space before, but usually there is little advance warning. She said JPL and Cassini staff members have been coordinating observances all over the world.

“This is a historic day,” Danly added.

She was surprised by how many people visited the observatory specifically for the “Saturn Wave” last Friday.

“That’s kind of amazing,” Danly said.

Following the photo shoot, patrons were invited to attend a Cassini presentation in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon theatre. At 8 p.m., attendees had an opportunity to view Saturn through the observatory telescopes.

For information, visit www.griffithobservatory.org.