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saturn animation
Here's a simple animation combining two frames taken 11 days apart - one frame was taken on the 19th at Lostock, the other one on the 30th from Glen Innes.
Watch carefully, there are two different effects:
- the shadows are disappearing as we get closer to opposition
- at the same time the rings are *opening* out as we approach opposition. After opposition the rings will start closing again, this is the short cycle caused by the earths orbit being slightly inclined to saturns ring plane. The longer 26 year cycle of opening/closing is caused by saturns orbit and is superimposed on the short cycle).
regards, Bird
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