Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Great Views Of Saturn

Posted by timothy on from the space-porn dept.

rehannan writes "Saturn is now a mere 750 million miles from earth; the closest point in it's 30-year orbit. Saturn's rings are facing earth this time around, which should make for some pretty good views. For more details, check out Space.com or the CNN article."

5 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. close isn't that much closer by bcrowell · · Score: 4, Interesting
    For Saturn, close isn't really that much closer than any other time. Saturn's orbit has a radius about 10 times Earth's, so the shortest distance between Earth and Saturn is only about 10% shorter than average.

    Now what's really going to be cool is Mars's opposition coming up in August, which is going to be the closest in thousands of years.

    I have a little planetarium applet that lets you play around and look at this kind of stuff.

    --
    Find free books.
    1. Re:close isn't that much closer by Spock+the+Baptist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Now what's really going to be cool is Mars's opposition coming up in August, which is going to be the closest in thousands of years"

      Yep...

      It ought to be a really striking opposition. This would be a good Christmas to get that promising young scientist a not so shine new telescope.

      Right after Santa pays a visit he/she can go outside and see great views of both Saturn, and Jupiter and still not miss their bedtime.

      A telescope, a microscope, and chemistry set, all on one Christmas morning! Not to mention that Radio 100 in 1 electronic experiment set!

      Ah! The joy of being a young nerd!

      --
      "Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex, I could pinch them." --Marvin the Martian
  2. Re:Numbskulls. by CanSpice · · Score: 3, Informative

    Do you expect to see Saturn's rings face-on? The view of the rings changes from year to year, as you've implied. However, at no point do we ever see the rings directly face-on. At most we'd see them tipped about 28 degrees towards us, not the 90 you'd expect if they were directly face-on.

  3. oxymoron by Transcendent · · Score: 4, Funny

    a mere 750 million miles

    =\

  4. great way to get some nice shots of saturn by evacuate_the_bull · · Score: 5, Informative

    webcam astronomy

    this guy has great instructions on how to "mod" your telescope for a webcam addition as well as documentation on how best to capture these images.

    this chance comes along about once a lifetime, take advantage of it!

    --
    Satanists get good grades too...suspiciously good grades