Today is the Fall Equinox...and its finally in the 60's at night here! Just in time for our Equinox, Cassini has released a spectacular image of Saturn taken on its recent equinox.
This is not one picture, but a mosaic of 75 images taken by Cassini! Download the full 7227x3847 image if you dare!
Saturn takes a lot longer to go around the Sun, so it's equinoxes occur about every 15 years. The rings are almost edge on to the Sun, so they are not brightly illuminated. Cassini was out of the ring plane when it took this picture so we get a nice view looking "down" on the rings. They released some other images as well you can check out.
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
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6 comments:
I downloaded the image. It is amazing. You can see some of the moons and the ripple on the surface... v cool!
Saturn has always been interesting to me. Cool pics.
Fall? As in autumn? As in 90 days to winter? Arrrgh!
Wow, I was just looking at the pics out on MSNBC. Truly amazing shots!
Saturn is favorite planet to watch for! Truly amazing pics Hale!
Saturn...I seen a couple of them driving around today!
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