Hello to all!

Long time forum lurker, first time poster. Being enthusiastic about spaceflight and space in general since my childhood, though having a long break in my twenties, now I am again deep in this fascinating subject. Three years ago I discovered Orbiter - a free spaceflight simulator by Dr. Martin Schweiger and after that I was hooked again.
And I am so thankful for all the gorgeous free information we can find on the internet regarding this hobby, and this forum looks to me a nice place with plenty of very knowledgable space exploration experts - its just excellent to come in here and gaze at you folks' work and analysis!

Sorry if this post is somehow off-topic, but I don't know where else this post would fit better. So Moderators, if you feel this has to be moved to another subforum feel free to do so.

Now my inquiry: Has anyone or NASA, Ciclops or anyone else ever tried to compile a Saturn map including the current ring shadows all in hi-resolution? I ask for this because I was thinking about creating a texture map, that would make look Saturn much more realistic in the Orbiter simulation. There are already hi-res ring textures available, so the only thing missing for Saturn would be such a texture. Perhaps there is a method to create this articificially with photoshop, but I guess projection of the shadows on a flat map seems quite challenging - at least to me. I would simply love to have a full planet texture including the current shadows on Saturns northern hemisphere along with the fascinating blue hue...

Any help or feedback is appreciated. Thanks to all!

Cheers

Well - with 3ds Max (the package I use at work ) one could mock up all this and then ask 3ds max to 'bake' the textures using lighting, and thus generate a Saturn map that included the ring shadows....but I wouldn't know where to start in getting realistic shadow projection.

Doug

Producing a texture map with the shadows already overlaid is a bad idea for two reasons:
1. You can't make the planet rotate without the shadows following.
2. You're limited to only that specific sun angle, it's not very flexible that way because the shadow will always come down at the same angle, regardless of the current season.

Yes, I am aware of those problems. For the first I already have the solution to create a cloud texture, which rotates the planet in the Orbiter simulation, you can adjust the rotation speed so the texture would stay fixed relative to the sun.
Your second point of course is absolutely valid. There is no solution for that.
Well, I would need the texture just during simulation of Cassinis several Saturn moon flybys in its scientific duty time...

There is an additional reason that making a Saturn map that includes the ring shadows is a bad idea: It makes more sense to simply render the shadows using a transparency map of the rings. This also (as previosuly noted) gives you far more flexibility.

And actually I'm working on a 9000x4500 pixel texture map of Saturn as I write this...

Some good news on this. From July 22, 2006, Cassini will undertake the 180 degree transfer sequence. This means that the spacecraft will get to view Saturn overhead from as high as 75 degrees tilt from the equator. This means lots of chances of high-resoultion moasics of the planet and the rings together.

It'll be interesting to see those high-inclination shots. Some of them will be the first ones to show Saturn as a globe in space without the rings -- in fact, seen from the right angle, even the rings' shadow might not be very visible, 'tho I'm speculating here.

A 75-degree inclination should be enough to get the C Ring out of the way. It might not do the same for the D Ring, but the D Ring is pretty much invisible anyways, when seen from "straight up" or "straight down".

Thanks Bjorn for your feedback. The only reason I am trying to make a map including the ring shadows is a limitation within the Orbiter simulation. Until now it is unfortunately impossible to render the shadows through a trancparency map onto the planets "surface" in real time

Your map you're working on sounds pretty interesting, can't wait to see the result!

Cheers