Starship Asterisk*

Mars-Saturn Conjunction

Explanation: Fainter stars in the zodiacal constellation Capricornus are scattered near the plane of the ecliptic in this field of view. The two brightest ones at center aren't stars at all though, but the planets Mars and Saturn. Taken on the morning of April 4, the telescopic snapshot captured their tantalizing close conjunction in a predawn sky, the pair of planets separated by only about 1/3 of a degree. That's easily less than the apparent width of a Full Moon. Can you tell which planet is which? If you guessed Mars is the redder one , you'd be right. Above Mars, slightly fainter Saturn still shines with a paler yellowish tinge in reflected sunlight. Even at the low magnification, Saturn's largest and brightest moon Titan can be spotted hugging the planet very closely on the left.

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Hi !
I think that it was the Morning of April 5, rather than April 4.

Nice Photo Damian!

The conjunction between Mars and Saturn reminds me of colorful double star Eta Cassiopeia.

Ann

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Sat Apr 09, 2022 12:16 pm

Click to view full size image

Nice Photo Damian!

Thanks for pointing out Titan, Orin!

Ann

Interesting that I was looking at Jupiter / Saturn two nights later at 50X and the rings of Saturn were quite visible and over twice the diameter of the globe. Your shot appears to show almost straight on edge / no rings? I've not seen it like that before. Thanks for sharing Titan!

Aries wrote: ↑Sat Apr 09, 2022 2:02 pm Interesting that I was looking at Jupiter / Saturn two nights later at 50X and the rings of Saturn were quite visible and over twice the diameter of the globe. Your shot appears to show almost straight on edge / no rings? I've not seen it like that before. Thanks for sharing Titan!

Neither planet is resolved in this image. At this image scale, Mars is smaller than a single pixel, and Saturn's ring system is just under 6 pixels wide. Compare that with the bloated planet images where the saturated disks are over 12 pixels wide. Both planets are completely lost in their own glare.

How to tell Saturn from Jupiter

in a narrow-angle field of view with no date and time stamp?
1) Saturn has its rings
2) Saturn has just one big satellite, not four

Now, what if (1) and (2) features are connected?
Some say Titan's orbit is excentric (Eccentricity=0.0288) because it is a merger of debris from past collisions.
Everybody says the rings are surely debris from past collisions.