Saturn ... September 21, 2025
(Click on Picture for larger view)


Added September 22, 2025 ...
Saturn at opposition

I took this image of Saturn at late night of September 21, 2025 using the Celestron 11" EdgeHD telescope with a focal length of 2,800mm. The camera was the Player One Uranus C (IMX585) planetary camera with a pixel size of 2.9 microns. Saturn was at opposition and was about 796.6 million miles away. Opposition is when the earth is directly between the sun and the planet giving the best oppurtunity to photograph it.

To photograph the planets, a telescope with a long focal length with a focal ratio f/8 or higher is recommended

The Cycle of Saturn's Rings
... Click on picture for a full view ...

The shape and view of the rings of Saturn are caused by the planet's 29.5-year orbit and its 26.7-degree axial tilt. During certain portions of its orbit, the rings appear face on, while at other times, they appear edge-on.

This year, the rings appear crossing the equatorial plane of the planet and appear edge on and quite thin or nearly invisible. The last time this occurred was in 2009. The next ring crossing will be in 2038. The rings were face-on in 2017 and will be face-on again in 2032, so for the next several years, the rings will begin to appear fuller, and more beautiful. The period from edge-on to full face-on is around 14.5 years. The complete cycle (full face at the top to full face at the bottom) is 29.5 years. I started taking pictures of Saturn in 2018 in the heavenly backyard and these are the images around the time of opposition over the past 8 years.

My video showing how I use my larage 11" telescope to capture Saturn and how to use the live-stacking software for any of the planets

The Techy Stuff ... For those who want to know ...
Telescope: Celestron Edge HD at f/10 with a focal length of 2,800mm
Camera: Player One Uranus C (IMX%*%)
Mount: Celestron CGX
Mount Control: CPWI
Guiding and "Goto", I used Celestron's CPWI with StarSense AutoGuider
Capture software: Sharpcap Pro using Live Stacking
Number of stacked images: 7,000
Seeing conditions: 9 (Scale of 1-10)
Location: My Backyard Heavenly Garden

Return to Pat Prokop's Heavenly Backyard Astronomy Page