this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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Astronomy

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Saturn's Rings Will Temporarily Disappear From View in 2025 (www.smithsonianmag.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

Fascinating. Never knew this was a thing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

I'll have to try the telescope! It's not very powerful, but I know I'm on Saturn because it's a clearly oblate blob. At that time, it'll be a round blob?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

very amusing. Thank you for posting op

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Yep! They go through a phase of being edge-on so become incredibly flat from our perspective. That also means there's a peak where the rings are most visible which will be in 2032.

There's a lot of good books out there with these phases detailed as well as guides for other planets. Highly recommend it for anyone getting into astronomy.