Saturn and moon Rhea on August 10, 2023 (Marco Lorenzi)

Contains: Solar system body or event

Image of the day 08/19/2023

Saturn and moon Rhea on August 10, 2023

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

Image of the day 08/19/2023

Saturn and moon Rhea on August 10, 2023

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

Saturn taken on the night of August 10, 2023 with excellent seeing conditions (9/10). At the date Saturn was approximately 1.32 billion kilometers away from Earth (820 mill miles) and moving closer, approaching opposition on August 27th. Saturn's globe apparent diameter is just shy of 19", however the majestic ring system stretches to double that diameter.

A noticeable distinction from last year's opposition is the increased tilt of the rings, the result of Earth's gradual movement towards the crossing point of the ring plane, which will happen in 2025. In this image the atmospheric bands across the globe exhibit a beautiful array of chromatic variations, a captivating tapestry of colors and textures arising from different elements present in the clouds like ammonia, phosphine, water vapor and hydrocarbons which enrich the composition of the predominantly hydrogen and helium-based atmosphere.

Above right is visible the moon Rhea gracing this majestic view. The tiny moon, which has an apparent diameter of only 0.23" (too little to show any detail), shows a magnitude close to 10th, much lower than that of Saturn, therefore its brightness was boosted during the processing to make it better visible.

The image is obtained with the lucky imaging technique, selecting the best frames of two videos sets taken in sequence, each one collecting separate data thru RGB filters on a high speed monchrome camera. I used my 21” Newton installed on the roof terrace of my home in Singapore.

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Image of the day 08/19/2023

Saturn and moon Rhea on August 10, 2023

Image of the day 08/19/2023

Saturn and moon Rhea on August 10, 2023

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Image of the day 08/19/2023

Saturn and moon Rhea on August 10, 2023

Image of the day 08/19/2023

Saturn and moon Rhea on August 10, 2023

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