Observe Titan shadow transits

Titan (smaller pale spot to left) and its dark shadow cross Saturn's disk on February 24, 2009, in this photo made with the 24-inch RCOS telescope at the University of Arizona SkyCenter on Mount Lemmon. Dione appears above the ring plane at left. Sid Leach, Adam Block, and Francisco Arabia

This year 2025, we still have a unique opportunity to observe Titan’s shadow passing across Saturn’s disk as we learned at the last members’ meeting from Bob Fealey. Below is an adapted table taken from Sky and Telescope. For mid transits, there are links to Saturn in stellarium-web.org , opens in new tab.

Upcoming Titan shadow transits (UT/CDT)

Date DoW Start Mid-transit End Length
July 18 Fri 7:00/2:00 9:44/4:44 12:05/7:05 5:05
Aug. 3 Sun 6:25/1:25 8:52/3:52 11:04/6:04 4:39
Aug. 19 Tue 5:52/0:52 8:01/3:01 10:00/5:00 4:08
Sept. 4 Thu 5:25/0:25 7:09/2:09 8:50/3:50 3:25
Sept. 20 Sat 5:09/0:09 6:20/1:20 7:34/2:34 2:25
Oct. 6 Mon   5:32*/0:32    

Start and end times are when Titan’s full shadow is first and last visible entering and exiting Saturn’s disk, respectively. * Full shadow on disk only at mid-transit
Saturn, Titan and other moons at time of the mid of Titan shadow transit 2025-07-18 according to Stellarium.

 

Author: Bob Fealey – Titan shadow on Saturn on 2025-07-18 3 AM CDT

Bob wrote on Forum: Finally teased out Titan’s shadow on Saturn early this am (taken about 4 am). Used the 6″ scope (Quattro) and took a 100 frame video. Processed with AS3, and Registax6.
… 
For the image above seeing conditions were not the best with very high humidity and atmospheric turbulence and I went to bed thinking I did not see the shadow clearly even with a fair view at the eyepiece.

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Saturn, Titan and other moons at time of the mid of Titan shadow transit 2025-08-03 according to Stellarium.

 

Author: Bob Fealey – Titan shadow on Saturn on 2025-08-03 morning

PHOTO DETAILS:    ’This photo was taken on 8/3/2025 at 3am with a Meade 10” SCT, the camera was a ZWO(ASI183MC). 200 video frames were stacked in Autostakker3 and enhanced with Registax6 and Photoshop Elements 2020.’ The image in b was brightened to produce the photo a where Titan is indicated. Images have been rotated to match the appearance in Stellarium.

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Saturn, Titan and other moons at time of the mid of Titan shadow transit 2025-08-19 according to Stellarium.