Astronomy Picture of the Day

NASA ^ | 1/11/09 | Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

[sig226]

In the Shadow of Saturn
Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

Explanation: In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn recently drifted in giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn and slightly scattering sunlight, in the above exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the above image. Visible in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus, and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, visible on the image left just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth.

[sig226]

[Tanniker Smith]

Damn! That one looks sooooo fake, like something from the art show at a SF convention.

[oldbrowser]

Damn! That one looks sooooo fake, like something from the art show at a SF convention.

The planet looks perfectly round. Isn't that unusual?

[LiberConservative]

Brilliant. I almost switched this image to my background today. But yesterday’s APOD (sunset on Mars) was just a tad cooler.

[Tanniker Smith]

yeah. And it looks like an oil panting.

[Tanniker Smith]

or even a “painting”.

[cripplecreek]

Here's my latest creation. It was just practice and I gotta learn to skip the ice cap because it gets stretched too much. Finally getting my starfield something like what I want. Practice practice practice.



Should have added a couple of thin rings.

[cripplecreek]

Didn’t Cassini get a similar pic a few years back?

[FreeManWhoCan]

Astonishingly beautiful and almost looks like it is fake but it *is* on the NASA website!

[sig226]

Nice painting. I remember another one, but not when they posted it.

[HoosierHawk]

Great job, cc.

[cripplecreek]

I found a site where I can enter contests. I’m not winning but I’m being challenged and getting plenty of pointers and good advice.

[HoosierHawk]

Good for you. Keep it up. I painted quite a bit when I was a kid, mostly pen and ink with watercolors. It was a blast until I was told that art teachers were, "a dime a dozen."

Please post as often as possible.

HH

[cripplecreek]

I kinda wish we had a photoshop group here at FR.

I’ve never had the patience for sitting down with a brush or pencil but photoshop allows me to drop the frustration of mistakes. I like the space art because I can make a planet and let my mind wander and think about what kind of place it would be.

I’m thinking this one is a Loggers paradise. All forest and marsh with little in the way of standing water. LOL

[STD]

This might just be heaven