THE DIVISIONS IN THE SATURN RINGS

[astroavani]

Although a little delayed I decided to publish this GIF that was sent to me at times by friend Ruud, Gif the one that evidences the diverse divisions existing in the rings of Saturn.
 It was based on a photo of me that surprised me because it shows what can be done with a good aperture telescope, a proper seeing and the correct use of a 685 nanometer infrared filter.
August, 04-2018; 01:16 TU
CMI: 356.9 CMIII: 199.0
C14 HD + ASI 290MC + PM 2X + IR 685
https://www.astrobin.com/389203/0/?nc=
PS: You have to click on the link to see the GIF!

[Ruud]

Oh, that was a while back indeed. I noticed all those partial gaps, mostly at top right and bottom left, so I fitted ellipses on top of them to see if the apparent gaps connected around the planet. They do. The gaps are most likely real features.

Now, had I know you'd share the result I would have obscured part of the ellipses, like so:

Thanks for sharing your photo with my ellipses!

 

 

[astroavani]

Thanks Ruud!

Eu que agradeço e muito, gostaria de saber se posso usar a foto atual para um concurso?

Vou reeditá-la no AstroBin pois ficará melhor.

Best Regards!

[Demonperformer]

Congratulations to you both. The photo is (as always) magnificent and the ellipses are informative.

Thanks for sharing.

[SIDO]

Excellent collaboration both of you, the work is both stunning and informative...I digress to coment further ?

[sloz1664]

Simply stunning.

[Ruud]

11 hours ago, astroavani said:

Eu que agradeço e muito, gostaria de saber se posso usar a foto atual para um concurso?

Vou reeditá-la no AstroBin pois ficará melhor.

Yes, of course you can enter the image. The ellipses are only there because I needed to convince myself of just how good it is. Never before have I seen an amateur photo that show this many gaps in the rings. 

I hope it wins!

The image was enlarged and  imported in Geogebra where the ellipses were added. They are all concentric and of the same eccentricity. They all have the same orientation. A variable controlled by a slider oscillates between 0 and 1. The visibility of the ellipses depends on this variable. The result was saved as an animated gif.

[astroavani]

Reissuing

DIVISIONS AND GAPS IN THE RINGS OF SATURN, REALITY, OR IMAGINATION?
A good photo sometimes makes us ramble, in this photo for example many appear to be the divisions in the rings of Saturn, however, as my friend David Wayne Knisely called my attention not everything that seems to be reality is, but always remain doubts.
The only recognized divisions in the rings are the very narrow gaps of Colombo and Maxwell in ring C, the division of Cassini between rings B and A, the division of Encke very narrow in ring A, and the Keeler gap near the outer edge of the ring A. Of these divisions and gaps, only the division of Cassini and Encke are clearly shown in the image above. Other variations of brightness, similar to narrow rings shown in the rings, are generally not gaps or true divisions, but there is doubt as there are gaps.
There is a small difference between what is divisions and gaps. Many texts do not differentiate between the two terms, but I believe that there is not much problem in this. The divisions are the separations between the large groups of rings (the groups A, B, C, D and ect), or gaps, are the spaces within the groups of rings. In general, divisions are much larger than gaps.
Below, I translated gap as division, as is customary in several publications. But to make clear which division is a gap I left the name in English in parentheses.
NOTE: The distance measure is made from the center of the planet to the beginning of the ring.
Ring D
Distance: 66.970 - 74.490 km
Width: 7,500 km
Ring C
Distance: 74.490 - 91.980 km
Width: 17,500 km
Division of Columbus (Columbus Gap)
Distance: 77,800 km
Width: 100 km
Maxwell Division (Maxwell Gap)
Distance: 87,500 km
Width: 270 km
Bond Division (Bond Gap)
Distance: .690 - 88,720 km
Width: 30 km
Dawes Division (Dawes Gap)
Distance: 90,200 - 90,220 km
Width: 20 km
Ring B
Distance: 91,980 - 117,580 km
Width: 25,500 km
Cassini Division (Cassini Division)
Distance: 117,500 - 122,050 km
Width: 4,700 km
Division of Huygens (Huygens gap)
Distance: 117.680 km
Width: 285 km - 440 km
Herschel Division (Herschel Gap)
Distance: 118,183 - 118,285 km
Width: 102 km
Russell Division (Russell Gap)
Distance: 118,597 - 118,630 km
Width: 33 km
Division Jeffreys (Jeffreys Gap)
Distance: 118,931 - 118,969 km
Width: 38 km
Kuiper Division (Kuiper Gap)
Distance: 119,403 -119,406 km
Width: 3 km
Leplace Division (Leplace Gap)
Distance: 119.848 - 120.086 km
Width: 238 km
Bessel Division (Bessel Gap)
Distance: 120,305 - 120,318 km
Width: 10 km
Barnard Division (Barnard Gap)
Distance: 120,305 - 120,318 km
Width: 13 km
Ring A
Distance: 122,050 - 136,770 km
Width: 14,600 km
Encke Division (Encke Gap)
Distance: 133.570 km
Width: 325 km
Keeler Division (Keeler Gap)
Distance: 136,530 km
Width: 35 km
Roche Division (Roche Division)
Distance: 136.770 - 139.380 km
Width: 2,600 km
F ring
Distance: 140,224 km
Width: 30 km - 500 km
G ring
Distance: 166,000 - 174,000 km
Width: 8,000 km
Ring E
Distance: 180,000 - 480,000 km
Width: 300,000 km
August, 04-2018; 01:16 TU
CMI: 356.9 CMIII: 199.0
C14 HD + ASI 290MC + PM 2X + IR 685
https://www.astrobin.com/389274/

[Ruud]

Thanks for mentioning the distinction between divisions and gaps. I edited my posts to correct my mixing up those terms.

[orion25]

Excellent work, Avani and Ruud ! This would make for a great tutorial on Saturn's rings, gaps and divisions  

Reggie

[Pete Presland]

Superb image as always Avani.

[vlaiv]

I'm not convinced

Here is comparison of profiles - top profile - captured Saturn image, middle profile - high resolution image blurred by Gaussian blur, bottom image - actual profile of rings (very high res).

I would not say that any particular division can be isolated, except Obvious Cassini. Others are just to blurred. There is also evidence of sharpening process - it reflects in changed gradients and relative intensities of blurred version and the image.

[HAsun]

Really impressive result you have there...