CHAPTER IX
Saturn
To show the advantages of large telescopes over small ones, Mr. C. Roberts says that “with the 25-inch refractor of the Cambridge Observatory the view of the planet Saturn is indescribably glorious; everything I had ever seen before was visible at a glance, and an enormous amount of detail that I had never even glimpsed before, after a few minutes’ observation.”[156]
Chacornac found that the illumination of Saturn’s disc is the reverse of that of Jupiter, the edges of Saturn being brighter than the centre of the disc, while in the case of Jupiter—as in that of the sun—the edges are fainter than the centre.[157] According to Mr. Denning, Saturn bears satisfactorily “greater magnifying power than either Mars or Jupiter.”[158]
At an occultation of Saturn by the moon, which occurred on June 13, 1900, M. M. Honorat noticed the great contrast between the slightly yellowish colour of the moon and the greenish tint of the planet.[159]
In the year 1892, when the rings of Saturn had nearly disappeared, Prof. L. W. Underwood, of the Underwood Observatory, Appleton, Wisconsin (U.S.A.), saw one of Saturn’s satellites (Titan) apparently moving along the needlelike appendage to the planet presented by the rings. “The apparent diameter of the satellite so far exceeded the apparent thickness of the ring that it gave the appearance of a beautiful golden bead moving very slowly along a fine golden thread.”[160]
In 1907, when the rings of Saturn became invisible in ordinary telescopes, Professor Campbell, observing with the great Lick telescope, noticed “prominent bright knots, visible ... in Saturn’s rings. The knots were symmetrically placed, two being to the east and two to the west.” This was confirmed by Mr. Lowell, who says, “Condensations in Saturn’s rings confirmed here and measured repeatedly. Symmetric and permanent.” This phenomenon was previously seen by Bond in the years 1847-56. Measures of these light spots made by Prof. Barnard with the 40-inch Yerkes telescope show that the outer one corresponded in position with the outer edge of the middle ring close to the Cassini division, and the inner condensation, curious to say, seemed to coincide in position with the “crape ring.” Prof. Barnard thinks that the thickness of the rings “must be greatly under 100 miles, and probably less than 50 miles,” and he says—
“The important fact clearly brought out at this apparition of Saturn is that the bright rings are not opaque to the light of the sun—and this is really what we should expect from the nature of their constitution as shown by the theory of Clerk Maxwell, and the spectroscopic results of Keeler.”[161]
Under certain conditions it would be theoretically possible, according to Mr. Whitmell, to see the globe of Saturn through the Cassini division in the ring. But the observation would be one of great difficulty and delicacy. The effect would be that, of the arc of the division which crosses the planet’s disc, “a small portion will appear bright instead of dark, and may almost disappear.”[162]
A remarkable white spot was seen on Saturn on June 23, 1903, by Prof. Barnard, and afterwards by Mr. Denning.[163] Another white spot was seen by Denning on July 9 of the same year.[164] From numerous observations of these spots, Denning found a rotation period for the planet of about 10h 39m 21s.[165] From observations of the same spots Signor Comas Sola found a period 10h 38m·4, a close agreement with Denning’s result. For Saturn’s equator, Prof. Hill found a rotation period of 10h 14m 23s·8, so that—as in the case of Jupiter—the rotation is faster at the equator than in the northern latitudes of the planet. A similar phenomenon is observed in the sun. Mr. Denning’s results were fully confirmed by Herr Leo Brenner, and other German astronomers.[166]