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Saturn Animations
Sun Crossing of Saturn's Ring Plane
As the Sun crossed through the plane of Saturn's rings during the nights of
November 18 to 23, 1995, about 200 CCD images of Saturn's satellite and ring
system were obtained by a team using the Indiana University coronagraphic
adaptor and re-imaging module on the 3.5-m WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak National
Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. In this 93K MPEG clip,
also available in a smoothed, noise-reduced
Quicktime version (428K), the Sun is on the opposite side of the rings
from Earth, and the rings are a "negative" image of their usual appearance.
The C ring and Cassini Division are bright, while the A and B rings are dark.
The animated clip shows the small Saturnian moons Epimetheus (top of the East
ansa, moving East), Prometheus (bottom of the East ansa, moving West), and Janus
(bottom of the West ansa, moving West). Toward the end of the movie, Pandora
emerges from behind the mask, heading West along the bottom of the West ansa,
and Mimas passes into the shadow of the rings.
Voyager Ring Spokes Animation
This 1.1-MB Quicktime movie shows the motion of the dark radial features
known as "spokes," first observed on Saturn's rings by Voyager. The spokes
are features as long as 20,000 km that move in patterns on the B ring, as can
be seen in this movie. For more information, see the source site given below.
Source: NASA JPL, Voyager Ring Spokes Animation,
Image ID: saturn_spoke.qt (converted to video codec)
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