Comments on: Quick Updates: Kepler, Saturn, Perseids, Jupiter http://www.alicesastroinfo.com/2009/08/quick-updates-kepler-saturn-perseids-jupiter/ I show you astronomy. Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:32:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: alicesastroinfo http://www.alicesastroinfo.com/2009/08/quick-updates-kepler-saturn-perseids-jupiter/comment-page-1/#comment-2806 alicesastroinfo Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:27:20 +0000 http://www.alicesastroinfo.com/?p=854#comment-2806 Howard, I saw the date of September 4th on another NASA site as the date of the ring plane crossing. It was an older article, so I used the newer one instead. What you say makes sense though, so perhaps the two dates are just so close together that they didn't choose to differentiate. -Alice Howard,

I saw the date of September 4th on another NASA site as the date of the ring plane crossing. It was an older article, so I used the newer one instead. What you say makes sense though, so perhaps the two dates are just so close together that they didn’t choose to differentiate.

-Alice

]]> By: Howard http://www.alicesastroinfo.com/2009/08/quick-updates-kepler-saturn-perseids-jupiter/comment-page-1/#comment-2805 Howard Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:25:22 +0000 http://www.alicesastroinfo.com/?p=854#comment-2805 Dear Alice, I don't like to disagree with NASA, but I think they're wrong that the disappearance of Saturn's rings from our point of view is because the Sun is shining directly at their edge. If this were so, we would still see the rings because Saturn has an albedo of 47% and that is easily enough sunlight to reflect off the rings and make them visible. Rather, the rings are invisible because their edge is aimed directly at our line of sight. This occurs when the rings are lined up with the plane of the ecliptic. The orbit of Saturn itself is inclined 2.485 degrees to the ecliptic (I had to look this up) so the disappearance of the rings is not the same as Saturn's equinox. Howard Dear Alice,
I don’t like to disagree with NASA, but I think they’re wrong that the disappearance of Saturn’s rings from our point of view is because the Sun is shining directly at their edge. If this were so, we would still see the rings because Saturn has an albedo of 47% and that is easily enough sunlight to reflect off the rings and make them visible. Rather, the rings are invisible because their edge is aimed directly at our line of sight. This occurs when the rings are lined up with the plane of the ecliptic. The orbit of Saturn itself is inclined 2.485 degrees to the ecliptic (I had to look this up) so the disappearance of the rings is not the same as Saturn’s equinox. Howard

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