Wheres Saturn's rings

[joea]

Ok I know it's a little early but I must tell everyone this. I don't know if any one knows this but Saturn will be in opposition in March. Twice a Saturnian’s year (about 30 Earth years) Saturn's equatorial plane coincides with its orbital plane. Saturn’s rings lie in the same plane as its equatorial; the rings then tilt edge-on to the sun. And those of us on Earth will get a view of Saturn without the rings. On March 8 the rings will be at a tilt of 3 degrees to our line of sight. It will look like a thin line.

[Mark G]

Cool huh? Thanks for the heads up Joe.

[Rotorhead]

This will be a first for me. I've never observed the rings edge-on. Something else that will be cool when this happens is that Saturn's moons will now look like Jupiter's moons - all in a row. Jupiter's moons are always in a row because Jupiter has the least axial tilt of any planet (2 or 3 degrees, I think) except tidally-locked Mercury (0 degrees) while Saturn has a 26 degree tilt. This allows us to normally be looking at Saturn's moons from well above or below their orbital plane. This makes the moons look like they are scattered all over the place. When Saturn's rings are edge-on, the moon's orbital plane will also be edge-on, and it should make for a unique show. Maybe shadow transits on Saturn???

March challenge for Bob's Whazzup Tonight: who can still see the Cassini division while the rings are edge-on?

[Galactus]

Thanks Joe. Exciting, Huh? Yep, we've all been watching the rings shrink a little each year the last few as Saturn's axis tilt changed... Thanks, Bob. I always wondered about the "normal" scattering of Saturn's moons and your explanation clarifies it for me as well as making me anticipate shadow transits along with the rings being near-invisible.