Saturday, September 20, 2025

Titan's Shadow Transit

Once every 15 years, the orbital mechanics of the solar system brings the orbital path of Saturn's moon Titan into an edge-on alignment with Earth, opening a window during which the moon's colossal shadow can be spotted sweeping across the surface of the gas giant. There were three opportunities to capture this event starting in August (Aug 3, Aug 19, Sept 4) and then two more on Sept 20 and finally October 6 where the shadow can be seen just skimming the northern face of Saturn. 

The first three were clouded out at my location. I will be planning to see the Oct 6th one, but early this morning I was able to capture the event, albeit not very well. Seeing was pretty bad (it usually is at my site which is why I don't typically do any serious planetary imaging). 

Here is the sequence, from 1:08am to 2:58am. The dark spot at the top of the planet is Titan's shadow on the planet. It appears a bit elongated, due to its location on the planet, but also because Titan itself is very close to the shadow and resolution of the image couldn't separate the two, although you can see a hint of separation in the image on the bottom left. At top right is the simulation from Stellarium



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Titan's Shadow Transit

Once every 15 years, the orbital mechanics of the solar system brings the orbital path of Saturn's moon Titan into an edge-on alignment ...