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Re:NASAs Cassini spacecraft has delivered a glorious view of... by natex on Friday December 21, 2012 @10:13AM (#4952930)
While I do find this image visually appealing, and appreciate its technical merit, I find it a bit unreal looking. Maybe it's a bit two-dimensional.

I prefer the more three-dimensional looking images like http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia1462....

Re:NASAs Cassini spacecraft has delivered a glorious view of... by Sharlin on Friday December 21, 2012 @11:07AM (#4953182)
Well, it's the night side, so obviously there's not the same kind of shading that you get with direct sunlight.
Re:NASAs Cassini spacecraft has delivered a glorious view of... by 001sky on Friday December 21, 2012 @12:39PM (#4953628)
The planet and the rings seem to violate 3D spatial relations. ie, planet appears outside the orbit of the rings, for example. Its a touch awkward. On a more subjective note, the outline of the planet in artificial colour (the corona effect) seems a bit ?? overdone.

I'd like to see other renderings.

edit: I think there is a bit of an optical illusion, part of which is happening because of the over-saturation of the corona. The image makes more sense if you soom out a bit and understand you are looking <up> at the planet from the souther hemispher (ie, below the equator/rings belt). The missing rings should be in the fore-ground but are absent due to shadow. Again, the corona;s colour saturation is so strong it throws the image constuct off when looking at it in more magnification.

Re:NASAs Cassini spacecraft has delivered a glorious view of... by Sharlin on Friday December 21, 2012 @02:45PM (#4954188)
Yes; you're looking "up" but surely there are no missing rings - they are actually visible against the planet as silhouettes. They are dark because they're in the planet's shadow.
Re:NASAs Cassini spacecraft has delivered a glorious view of... by natex on Friday December 21, 2012 @01:05PM (#4953750)
I agree, but this helped. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4952908

I can better appreciate the view now.