The Heavens Declare His Glory...

The planet Saturn is a gas giant like Jupiter. Saturn is the 6th planet out from the sun in our solar system. The most striking thing about Saturn is of course it's rings. 

            This photo of Saturn was taken by me on December 13, 2005.  (It was coooold!) The bright dots near Saturn are some of it's moons. The one furthest away is Titan, the only moon in the Solar System with a known atmosphere.

Here is a closer view of the same shot.

Saturn is approximately 9 AU (astronomical units) from earth, or about 9 x 93 million miles.  It takes .45 earth days to complete one revolution on it's axis. It takes  10,804.92  earth days to make one complete orbit around the sun. The average temperature of Saturn's atmosphere is -301º F.  Brrr.

Notice the difference in the tilt of the rings of the first two photos from the last two photos. The last two where actually photographed in the spring of 2005 while the first two were taken on December 13 of 2005. 

Saturn Information:
RA: 08h 55m 05.5s Dec: +17°58'02" 
Azm: 81°26'53" Alt: +20°08'27" (with refraction: +20°11'07")
Phase: 99.789%, Apparent magnitude: -0.10
Heliocentric ecliptical coordinates: 
l: 125°53'24.7" b: +00°31'32.2" r: 9.102763 
Geometric geocentric ecliptical coordinates: 
l: +131°09'16" b: +00°33'37" r: 8.541017 
Mean geometric ecliptical coordinates: 
l: +131°09'09" b: +00°33'36" r: 8.540983 
True equatorial coordinates: RA: 08h 55m 05s Dec: +17°58'02" 
Physical Data
Latitude of the Earth B: -17.529°
Latitude of the Sun Bd: -19.466°
Position angle: 353.232°
Semi-major axis of rings: 43.95"
Semi-minor axis of rings: 13.24"
Apparent equatorial diameter: 19.4 
Apparent polar diameter: 15.6

Data on December 4, 2005

All Photographs contained on this site have been taken by me, (alias - Quantum Singularity), and are Copyrighted Material 2004 - 2006.  Enjoy these photographs, but they may not be reproduced or copied without the express permission of the photographer.