Ring-less Saturn with moons, 12 April 2025

I finally got a clear morning to capture Saturn (almost) edge on. Saturn was sitting at about 15 - 20 degrees elevation, so I racked up the ADC and had a crack. Early captures were not great, but by the time dawn was breaking I was able to capture some presentable images.

Below is a composite image of a ringless Saturn and (top to bottom) Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and Iapetus. Note was the complete absence of any rings, even when I ramped up the middle "level" slider in Photoshop. Colours aren't great, but the ring shadow is quite obvious.

2025 04 11 2003 0 L Sat AS F7500 lapl6 ap23 with moons Ps1.png