August 25, 2023
There are stars whose light will never reach us, worlds we will never touch, mysteries we may never solve.
A Season of Saturn
Birthday · August 25, 2023
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APOD published August 25, 2023. Credit: Andy Casely. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Ringed planet Saturn will be at its 2023 opposition, opposite the Sun in Earth's skies, on August 27. While that puts the sixth planet from the Sun at its brightest and well-placed for viewing, its beautiful ring system isn't visible to the unaided eye. Still, this sequence of six telescopic images taken a year apart follows both Saturn and rings as seen from inner planet Earth. The gas giant's ring plane tilts from most open in 2018 to approaching edge-on in 2023 (top to bottom). That's summer to nearly the autumn equinox for Saturn's northern hemisphere. In the sharp planetary portraits Saturn's northern hexagon and a large storm system are clearly visible in 2018. In 2023 ice moon Tethys is transiting, casting its shadow across southern hemisphere cloud bands while Saturn's cold blue south pole is emerging from almost a decade of winter darkness.
Image credit: Andy Casely