Saturn's largest moon Titan cast a shadow on the planet early on the morning of March 28. Saturn is tilted 27 degrees to its orbital plane. Shadow transits of Saturn's moons only occur when the planet is at a point in its orbit where the rings appear edge-on to our point of view. At that position in Saturn's orbit, Titan's orbital plane crosses between Saturn and the Sun, and Titan will cast a shadow on Saturn. This image shows the moon Titan below and slightly to the left of Saturn. Titan's shadow transiting near the bottom of Saturn's disk is clearly visible.
This image was obtained by taking the best 500 frames of video captured by a webcam using the 24-inch RCOS telescope at the University of Arizona SkyCenter on Mount Lemmon. Adam Block is conducting nightly observing programs at the University of Arizona SkyCenter that are open to the public. You can view and understand the night sky with an expert astronomer to guide you on an adventure under the stars, and the 24-inch RCOS telescope that I used to take this image is dedicated to that public outreach program.
Constellation: Leo
RA: 11h 15m 16s Dec: +07d 16' 32"
March 28, 2009
Image by Sid Leach and Adam Block
Mount Lemmon, Arizona
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