Saturn's rings edge on: the coming weeks

[kinetic]

Hi All,

Just a reminder that people should try and spend the next few weeks/months getting a good look at Saturn.

The last time I saw Saturn appear as it does now, I was a teenager
at high school. It was 1980-81.
I remember seeing the rings disappear for about a week in my first
telescope (before we built an 8" Newt)
This only happens every 29 years so it's worth a look!
Like everything in my/our busy lifestyles, this one could easily slip
past my radar...as did the Smiley face event a few weeks back.

I've searched a few sites for a specific time and date for minimum
ring angle and found an explanation of what happens in the next
few weeks:
http://www.visualastronomy.com/2008/11/saturns-rings-nearly-edge-on.html

Perhaps Trevor B could chime in here.....

Trev, do you know any specific dates/times of the following weeks
we should look out for?

This is one of those once or twice in a lifetime events.

Get yourself outside folks!:D

[Kevnool]

Ahh listen to the excitement in your voice there Steve, So proud, as Steve says Get out there amongst it and look up....cheers Kev.

[Jen]

i love Saturn :love: its just not gonna be the same when the rings close in :sadeyes: it will definately give it a different look i wonder if it will still give you the wow factor effect :rolleyes:

[mozzie]

looking forward to seeing some inner moons

[Quark]

Hi Steve,
Astronomy 2009 has the rings closed on Sept 4, that is when Earth passes through the ring plane, however at that time Saturn will be fairly close to the Sun.

The data for my work with Georg Fischer, at least until the end of January shows the rings to be opening.

27/12 -0.805 degrees
31/12 -0.814 degrees
04/01 -0.837 degrees
08/01 -0.874 degrees
12/01 -0.924 degrees
16/01 -0.987 degrees
20/01 -1.063 degrees
24/01 -1.150 degrees
28/01 -1.249 degrees
16/01 -0.987 degrees

These data are the angles of the rings relative to Earth.
I would advise anyone wishing to make an attempt at imaging possible storm activity to try on these dates. The storms, if any, are likely to be in the Storm Alley region at Lat 35 Sth.

Regards
Trevor

[Wavytone]

As usual, new moon approaches and the weather in Sydney is utter crap again. Sometimes I wonder if the weather has a tidal correlation to the lunar phase, with maximum cloud at new moon.

Unfortunately the BOM does not record cloud cover at night.

[kinetic]

Thanks Trev for the info.
At first I couldn't quite understand why they would close up, then open
up a fraction , before finally closing Sept 09'.
But then I did a sim in Starry Night and it clicked!
Looks like we get quite a bit of time to view it after all.

regards,
Steve