These images cover the 2008/9 season. Saturn reaches opposition on 13th March 2009.
The rings close up almost completely this season. Because of the relative orientations of the Earth's orbit and the plane of Saturn's rings, as seen from here, the rings will appear to close almost completely by late December before opening again until April of next year. Resolving the rings at all in December 2008 will be difficult (I wonder if I will be able to see them). In September 2009, we will pass through the plane of the rings and they will be invisible in all but the largest instruments. (Saturn will be on the other side of the Sun at the time.) Thereafter the rings will open again and we will see their northern side.
Passing close to the plane of the rings means that transits of the satellites will occur. However resolving them will be much more difficult than for the major satellites of Jupiter.
The images are in chronological order, so the best may well be in the middle.
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My first picture of the season. Saturn was low in the early-morning sky (25° and right over the nearby town) when this picture was taken only an hour before sunrise. Saturn was 1,507 million kilometres (10.07 AU) away and subtended an angle of 16 arc-seconds. Mimas was in transit at this time, but there is no way I could resolve it.
Date and Time: 22nd October 2008 05:41 UT Camera: ToUcam 740K Telescope: LX200 with X2 lens and Neodymium filter Capture: K3CCDTools. Low gamma, high saturation, 1/25", 63% gain, 1210 frames Processing: Registax. 647 frames stacked, histogram 0-160, wavelets 1-3 = 10. FocusMagic 5,50. |
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My second picture of the season. Saturn was better-placed in the early-morning sky (40°) when this picture was taken 2 hours before sunrise. Saturn was 1,418 million kilometres (9.48 AU) away and subtended an angle of 17 arc-seconds. No satellites were in transit at the time. The rings are closing, but still visible as a narrow line.
Date and Time: 3rd December 2008 05:27 UT Camera: ToUcam 740K Telescope: LX200 with X2 lens and Neodymium filter Capture: K3CCDTools. Low gamma, high saturation, 1/25", 60% gain, 358 frames Processing: Registax. 165 frames stacked, wavelets 1-2 = 10, histogram 0-225. |