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Next: Titan. Up: Saturn Previous: The stratosphere.

The rings.

On October 2-3, 1991,Elliot et al. (1993) observed an occultation of the star GSC 6323-01396 (V=11.9) by Saturn. When Saturn, as viewed from earth, was near a stationary point in its orbit, its apparent motion relative to the star was mainly due to the 8 km/s orbital motion of HST. Because of passages of HST behind the earth and through the South Atlantic Anomaly (an irregularity in the earth's magnetic field which allows high energy solar particles to impact the camera chip and electronics and greatly increases the noise in the data), 15 segments of data on 13 successive HST orbits were required to record this event which lasted from 19:35 UT, Oct. 2 to 15:25 UT, Oct. 3, 1991. Forty-three different features in the ring structure were identified. Elliot et al. combined these data with times derived from an occultation of a star, 28 Sagittarius, and derived a radius scale and a ring-pole direction which is independent of the Voyager navigation and its associated trajectory errors.



U.S. National Report to IUGG, 1991-1994
Rev. Geophys. Vol. 33 Suppl., © 1995 American Geophysical Union