Saturnicentric latitude of the Earth and Sun

This diagram shows the apparent Saturn-centered latitude of the Sun and Earth during the ring plane crossing periods. Times of crossing events (as observed at Earth) and opposition are indicated. The shaded regions correspond to the times when the unlit side of the rings will be visible from Earth.

Note that the Sun is shown by a double-line, indicating the size of the solar disk as seen from Saturn. Because of its size, it takes roughly four days for the solar disk to cross the ring plane.

A previous version of this diagram has been found to be slightly inaccurate.