April 2025 - Andrew Amiet (Saturn)

Winner of the BINTEL Photo of the Month for April 2025 is Andrew Amiet.

It's quite a unique image. We often view or take photos of Saturn through a telescope and the planet's wide rings are one of the most remarkable sights in the night sky. 

Andrew captured Saturn during the recent ring crossing - this was a period when its rings were edge on as seen from Earth. Saturn, like the Earth, orbits the Sun at a slight tilt. There are times of its "year" when its northern hemisphere is pointed towards the Sun and at other times, the southern parts of Saturn do so. This gives Saturn seasons like we experience here on Earth. When it's halfway between seasons during equinox, the rings as seen from Earth disappear! You can read more about this in a blog article here. 

To capture this rare event, Andrew used:

• Celestron Evolution 9.25" SCT Telescope
• ZWO ADC
• Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate
• ZWO IR-cut filter
• ZWO ASI224MC camera

30,000 frames captured over 5 minutes at 100 frames per second.  The image was stacked in AutoStakkert, sharpened in Registax and finished in Photoshop.

Taken on the 12th of April 2025, he commented that it could possibly be the "first colour image taken of Saturn edge-on with the rings not visible [for this ring crossing]. This is composite image of a ringless Saturn and (top to bottom) Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and Iapetus." 

Congrats on the great result Andrew!