2025, March 23:  From the Edge, Saturn’s Rings

March 23, 2025: While Saturn is buried in bright morning twilight, Earth passes through the ring plane.  When the planet emerges from twilight, we see the rings from a southern view.

Saturn
Image Caption – This NASA Hubble Space Telescope photo of Saturn reveals the planet’s cloud bands and a phenomenon called ring spokes.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:48 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:07 p.m. CDT.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

Saturn, Ring-Plane Crossing
Photo Caption – In one of nature’s most dramatic examples of “now-you see-them, now-you-don’t,” NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured Saturn on May 22, 1995 as the planet’s magnificent ring system turned edge-on. This ring-plane crossing occurs approximately every 15 years when the Earth passes through Saturn’s ring plane. (NASA photo)

While Saturn is buried in bright morning twilight, Earth passes through the planet’s ring plane.  If we could see it, the rings would nearly disappear, like looking at the edge of a plate.

Saturn's orbit
Chart caption – Saturn moves through its orbit.

Saturn’s year is nearly 30 earth-years long.  With a tilt of 26.7°, the sun shines most directly at the Saturnian hemispheres in alternating periods of nearly 15 years.  On Earth, we call this the annual cycle of the seasons, though on Saturn one season is over seven years long.

Saturn (NASA)
Photo Caption – Saturn (NASA)

Around the time of the summer solstice, when Saturn is high enough to clearly view through a telescope, the rings are only slightly tilted to reveal their southern side.  The icy rings present their full view in seven years, when the sun shines on the planet’s most southerly regions.

Today, Saturn’s rings are edge on, though the planet is not visible from twilight’s bright light.

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One thought on “2025, March 23:  From the Edge, Saturn’s Rings”

  1. There is still plenty to observe throughout 2025. I have been carefully observing since last September 2024. I have been regularly observing the moon and planets through my Istar 150mm f8 R35 refractor and as we approach spring it is now deep sky season with a multitude of galaxies to be viewed as well as planets and the moon whenever they are visible.

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