Titan eclipsed in Saturnshine and Ringshine
Taken by Paolo Palma on October 27, 2024 @
Roma - Italy
Click photo for larger image
| |
Camera Used: Unavailable Unavailable
Exposure Time: Unavailable
Aperture: Unavailable
ISO: Unavailable
Date Taken: Unavailable
|
|
| More images
Details:
Last night with my telescope I tried to observe from Rome the total eclipse of the largest moon of Saturn entering the shadow of the ringed planet. But something happened that I would never have expected.
According to Stellarium, the planet would have taken about 45 minutes to be totally hidden by Saturn's shadow. I followed the event from the beginning even if only towards the end the gradual decrease in brightness became more evident. I was now ready to see the large satellite totally disappear in the shadow of the planet and instead it was not like that. Unexpectedly in fact the satellite remained practically visible even when it was totally eclipsed. It had reached the magnitude of Iapetus ( about +10.5 ) which was visible not far from them, thus becoming about 7 times less bright than when it was out of the shadow, but without ever disappearing totally. I was able to follow the light of Titan in eclipse for about 40 minutes, during which its brightness remained almost constant. The arrival of the clouds prevented me from observing the end of the eclipse.
I was very surprised to be able to see it even though it was totally eclipsed. I thought I was looking at the wrong object or that I had the wrong date. Sometimes I have also followed the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, but something like this had never happened to me. And yet it was him and the drop in brightness had been there.
Imagining then what happens during total eclipses of our Moon, I began to hypothesize that even Titan then, even if eclipsed, is at a certain point illuminated by the rays of the Sun that pass through Earth's atmosphere and even more by the strong brightness of the rings that surround Saturn. So that light would be a sort of ashen light ot a planetshine of Saturn or of its Rings. WOW.
Searching online I was unable to find other testimonies, if not something from the last century and more. Also because such events are rare and only occur when the planet reaches the equinox so as to see itself edge-on just like in these months.
However, I found some articles and photo of the Cassini Space probe that talk about the shadowed areas of Saturn and its satellites that appear illuminated by what they call Ringshine and Saturnshine. So my hypothesis seems to be confirmed
I'm waiting for the next eclipses to further verify the phenomenon. In the meantime, anyone who photographed Saturn on October 27, 2024 between about 9:40UT and 10:40UT pm will certainly have also observed and filmed Titan, eclipsed by Saturn yet illuminated by the light of its rings.
I took pics and video with my Huawei p30 pro ISO5000 1/15s. Dobson 12" x228 and zoomx3
Photographer's website:
https://www.unsaltonelcielo.it
|
|
|
