On 12/29/12, Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:
1) Why the crisp silhouettes of the near rings against the (false color) green background seem discontinuous with the arcs outside the planet's shadow, presumably viewed by scattered, transmitted sunlight.
Part of that may be the fact that they look different from in front and from behind. To first approximation, the dark shadow pattern agrees with the bright Sunward-facing reflection pattern (what we usually see) but not necessarily with the backscatter pattern (which involves diffraction and other messy stuff). Here's a nice image showing all three (by pasting two images) side by side: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8483/8285714929_54f4ccfc2d_b.jpg
2) The bluish white haze extending far to the right from 5 o'clock on the limb.
I think it's the E ring, but maybe it's the G ring. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saturn_outer_rings_labeled.jpg -- Robert Munafo -- mrob.com Follow me at: gplus.to/mrob - fb.com/mrob27 - twitter.com/mrob_27 - mrob27.wordpress.com - youtube.com/user/mrob143 - rilybot.blogspot.com