apparent size: 15 to 21 seconds
apparent magnitude: 0.6 to 1.5
Saturn
One of the most impressive sights in the night sky has to be your first view of Saturn and its rings... visible even through small telescopes (but not binoculars). One of its many moons, Titan (magnitude 8.3), is also visible in small telescopes [Rhea, Dione and Iapetus are visible in 6 - 8 inch telescopes].
View through a small telescope:
apparent size: 15 to 21 seconds
apparent magnitude: 0.6 to 1.5
Voyager 2 photograph (1981):
Saturn With Tethys and Dione
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Saturn and two of its moons, Tethys (above) and Dione, were photographed by Voyager 1 on November 3, 1980, from a distance of 13 million kilometers (8 million miles). The shadows of Saturn's three bright rings and Tethys are cast onto the cloud tops. The limb of the planet can be seen easily through the 3,500-kilometer-wide (2,170 mile) Cassini Division, which separates ring A from ring B. The view through the much narrower Encke Division, near the outer edge of ring A is less clear. Beyond the Encke Division (at left) is the faintest of Saturn's three bright rings, the C-ring or crepe ring, barely visible against the planet. (Courtesy NASA/JPL)
View with the Nordic Optical Telescope
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This image of Saturn was taken with the 2.6 meter Nordic Optical Telescope, located at La Palma, Canary Islands. (© Copyright Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association -- NOTSA)
This animation shows Saturn during a southern hemisphere summer, with the fly around following the plane of Saturn's orbit, so that it dips above and below the rings. The view distance is about two ring diameters, with a view angle of approximately sixty degrees.
Hubble Space Telescope Views Major Storm on Saturn (video)
The movie shows the Saturn white spot, a great storm in the equatorial region of Saturn, discovered by amateur astronomers in September, 1990. Such storms are rare: the last one in the equatorial region occurred in 1933. The movie contains one complete rotation of Saturn. The storm extends completely around the planet, in some places it appears as great masses of clouds and in others as well-organized turbulence.
Knowing that this storm is probably a once-in-a-lifetime event, scientists and engineers of a special White Spot Observing Team, the Wide Field/Planetary Camera Team, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the Goddard Space Flight Center reprogrammed the observing schedule of the Hubble Space Telescope. They were able to get several days of Saturn observations in mid-November 1990, shortly before Saturn moved too near in the sky to the Sun for safe observations by HST.
Saturn's spokes in rings (video)
This animation was taken from the movie Voyager Encounter Highlights Tape (CMP 311). It was digitized by Calvin J. Hamilton.
Titan
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Opaque layers of clouds prevented Voyager from seeing Titan's surface during its 1980 flyby. The clouds over the southern hemisphere are lighter in color than over the northern hemisphere. There is a dark hood over the north pole. This image is Copyright © 1998 by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this image needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton.
Dione
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This image of Dione was taken by Voyager 1 on November 12, 1980. It shows the Saturn-facing hemisphere. The darker trailing hemisphere is located toward the right limb, with wispy white streaks crisscrossing the surface. The plains terrain is located along the terminator. This image is Copyright © by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this image needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton.
Iapetus
click on the image for a larger view
Saturn's outermost large moon, Iapetus, has a bright, heavily cratered icy terrain and a dark terrain, as shown in this Voyager 2 image taken on August 22, 1981. Amazingly, the dark material covers precisely the side of Iapetus that leads in the direction of orbital motion around Saturn (except for the poles), whereas the bright material occurs on the trailing hemisphere and at the poles. The bright terrain is made of dirty ice, and the dark terrain is surfaced by carbonaceous molecules, according to measurements made with Earth-based telescopes. (Caption: Courtesy USGS) This image is © Copyright 1999 by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this image needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton.
Enceladus
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This Voyager 2 mosaic of Enceladus was made from images taken through the clear, violet and green filters on August 25, 1981, from a distance of 119,000 kilometers (74,000 miles). In many ways, the surface of this satellite of Saturn resembles that of Jupiter's Galilean satellite Ganymede. Enceladus, however, is only one-tenth Ganymede's size. Some regions of Enceladus show impact craters up to 35 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter, whereas other areas are smooth and uncratered.
Hyperion
This image of Hyperion was acquired by the Voyager 2 spacecraft on August 25, 1981. This image is Copyright © by Calvin J. Hamilton. Any commercial/for-profit use of this image needs to be addressed to Calvin J. Hamilton.
Written by Stephen R. Kessell
Updated 27 January, 2001
