The Illustrations below are provided to help the reader become familiar with: (A) the nomenclature associated with, and the appearance of, Saturn's complex ring system, and (B) the difference between seeing a ring system in backscattered light, and seeing it in forward-scattered light. Links are provided to topics discussed elsewhere in Basics of Space Flight.

The images below show the Saturnian Ring System viewed from opposite sides. They were taken while the spacecraft was in orbit about Saturn beginning in 2004. Click here to learn more about the Cassini Spacecraft.

Clicking on one of the images below will bring up a very large image in JPEG format. [editor's note: preliminary image is GIF] Each may take a noticeable amount of time to download. Once the entire image is available in your browser, the intent is to use your browser's scrolling capabilities to "fly" through the Saturnian System, while reading the captions and their linked pages. Be sure your browser is displaying a 100% scale image for you to scroll around through. Information, including links to pertinent Basics pages, is available by clicking on the word "MORE" associated with some of the captions.

For a discussion of forward-scattering and backscattering as applicable to viewing ring systems, click here.