Re: Saturn shadow transit.
- From: Evan Miller <evrmiller@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 05:03:11 GMT
I had the same thought earlier tonight and used my Guide 8 program to look for shadow transit events of Titan. I knew that due to the tilt of the planet these would only happen around the time we see the rings edge on. These shadow transits should be very visible, since Titan's disc measures about .7 arcsec and the shadow about .6 arcsec. There will be a series of events in 2009, on 16 day intervals, and I've listed the beginning of the series below (times are approximate).
Month Day Start End Feb 8 7:14AM EST 8:34AM EST Feb 24 5:39AM EST 8:24AM EST Mar 12 4:24AM EST 7:54AM EST Mar 28 3:19AM EST 7:24AM EST Apr 13 3:19AM EDT 7:49AM EDT Apr 29 2:24AM EDT 7:14AM EDT May 15 1:24AM EDT 6:34AM EDT May 31 12:29AM EDT 5:54AM EDT
In the first event listed, the shadow will graze the planet at the polar region. In the next two, Titan and it's shadow will transit together; this happens during some later events as well. The events get longer since the shadow path moves from the north pole towards the equator with each successive event, then they will get shorter as they move towards the south pole. During a later even on Aug 2 Titan's shadow will cross the equator and intersect the thin shadow of the rings.
Other moons will have shadow transits as well, but I haven't tried to simulate any of them yet.
This is not the entire series, they will continue throughout 2009 and the last one will be on Jan 9, 2010. Some will be visible from the US and should be fascinating to watch.
Evan Miller
Uncle Bob wrote:
Greetings--
I was watching Io's shadow transit Jupiter's disc last week (at least I think it was Io's shadow), and it popped into my mind that such transits must also occur on Saturn. I quickly forgot about it and tonight it popped back into my mind once again.
Have you ever witnessed such an event on Saturn? I have never seen a photo of one. Are these events visible when the rings aren't edge on to earth? It would seem so to me.
Clear Skies, Uncle Bob
.
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