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Saturns strange ring appearance?

Adz

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Adz

Adz

Posted
Posted

Hey all,

When I view Saturn, it appears to have both sides of the rings to pass in front on the planet - on our side if you like. It is obviously some optical illusion, perhaps one line across the planet is the rings and one is the shadow?

I haven't had time to collimated so it may become clearer, is this a common observation?

Cheers,

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Ad Astra

Ad Astra

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Hello Adz,

There is a 'white outbreak' happening on Saturn just now - it is a giant hurricane type storm that is just beneath the ring plane and changes the appearance of the disk greatly.

You probably saw that massive storm. The edge closer to the poles is darker and may have given you the impression of an MC Escher drawing where the rings are visible on both sides. :)

Good eye for detail, mate!

Dan

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NGC 1502

NGC 1502

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I saw the same effect last night and it's definitely due to some cloud banding visible in Saturn's atmosphere at the moment.

I think that GeorgeB has the answer, a fairly prominent cloud

band on Saturn's globe is lining up with the rings as they pass

behind, to give this effect.

Regards, Ed.

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Adz

Adz

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It's okay Olly :) I thought it could be my collimation too...!

It's going to be great with the moon rising so low and late now, I should be able to get some more fuzzies tonight.

Clear skies to all.

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alaskacam

alaskacam

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I took this shot last night in rather poor seeing conditions. It shows what you guys are talking about. My wife first noticed when imaging and asked why it looked like you could see both sides of the rings...

post-16279-133877567503_thumb.jpg

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Adz

Adz

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Yep I can absolutely confirm it now after last night.

Rob that is a great picture that indicates exactly what I meant, thanks :)

The conditions last night were fantastic for me, I saw the cassini division for the first time in my life ! ! ! !

I am so happy and didn't think it would be possible in my scope. The 8mm TV plossl brought out so much detail that nothing else came close to! :eek::icon_salut:

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Yes, this is a great thing to see. I used an Altair Astro 115 triplet and got a superb view at 200x. It takes some mental sorting out because of the strange alignment of storm and hidden ring. What about a dark band below the visible half of the rings? I was not sure if this was more storm or the ring shadow.

Olly

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alaskacam

alaskacam

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Here is a better shot that I took Friday evening. I'm using a modified 840k Toucam on the 6" refractor, with a 2x barlow. While Saturn looks beautiful visually through my setup, the scope focal length and the webcam resolution makes it a challenge to get lots of detail in the photos. I will be doing mainly deep space imaging once I get the last needed cable. :)

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