SATURN — TONIGHT !! Photographed by my great friend @jamiecooperphotography. You might remember my humble attempts at imaging the planet Saturn with an iPhone a few days ago – and I said I’d tell you what was happening in a minute. Well. sorry it was a long minute ! But this beautiful capture tells the story. Zooming into this photograph we can clearly see that we are viewing this gas@giant from a position almost in the plane of its rings. That’s why, in my low resolution picture, Saturn looked as if it had little sticks poking out each side. Around the 22nd of November this year the Earth will actually pass through the plane of those rings. The ring system, made of billions of fragments of ice and rock, is more than a quarter of a million miles in diameter (almost exactly the same distance as from the Earth to the Moon) – but it’s astoundingly only 10 meters thick. So when we cross the plane of the rings, apparently they will disappear@from our view. I’ve never seen this happen, so I’m looking forward to trying to witness that moment. Wanna see ? Just a small telescope or even a good pair of binoculars will enable you to see the beauty that is Saturn. Locate it using an app such as Sky Guide or Star Walk 2 – and check it out in the flesh in the coming weeks ! It’s truly a wonderful sight. But meanwhile we can enjoy it through Jamie’s brilliant astrophotography. Cheers folks – Br1)
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