ESO Images of Saturn

Ground-based detections of Pandora and 1995S6
during the August 1995 ring plane crossing

These two sets of images were taken with the Adonis adaptive optics camera installed at the 3.6-m telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO La Silla). The short K filter corresponds to a central wavelength of 2.2 microns. Each frame has a width of 10.4 arcsec, and shows the dark side of the rings. Observers were J.-L. Beuzit, P. Prado and B. Sicardy. The images were processed by F. Poulet at Paris Observatory.

The upper panel shows the Western ansa of Saturn's ring, about one day and a half before the Earth ring plane crossing (predicted at Aug. 10, 1995, 20:54 UT). The halo on the left is caused by the light scattered from Saturn. Besides Janus and Rhea, one can see Pandora moving westward (to the right), as expected from the Saturn Viewer of Mark Showalter.

The lower panel shows again the Western ansa, about 12 hours before the ring plane crossing. The left frame shows the brighter B ring and Cassini Division, the fainter A ring, plus a brighter clump at the extremity of the ansa, corresponding to the location of the F ring. The right frame has been obtained by substracting an image of the Eastern ansa. One notes the presence of an unresolved object, identified as the new satellite 1995S6 tracked by the Hubble Space Telescope a few hours after this image was taken (IAUC 6243). In total, 9 pre-discovery images taken at ESO show an object at Eastern and Western elongations, at times expected from the ephemerides of 1995S6 derived by HST.

Saturn Ring Plane Crossing Home Page

ESO Images of Saturn

Ground-based detections of Pandora and 1995S6 during the August 1995 ring plane crossing

Ground-based detections of Pandora and 1995S6
during the August 1995 ring plane crossing