Good idea, John, to have another go at Saturn...
For now, I am using a 2k Saturn texture for
celestia.Sci that I made some years ago, when the blue Northern color became known via Cassini.
2k Saturn texture (for download):
Attachment:
saturn-fri.png [ 1.4 MiB | Viewed 2766 times ]
I also made my own
4k Saturn rings from the quite recent hires data by Cassini.
Here is a global view
[
Click on the image and then on the browser's full-screen key ( = F11 for FF) for a natural 1920x1200 display]
Attachment:
saturn_Sci.jpg [ 208.59 KiB | Viewed 2766 times ]
and here a detailed view of the high ring resolution:
[
Click on the image and then on the browser's full-screen key ( = F11 for FF) for a natural 1920x1200 display]
Attachment:
satring_hires.jpg [ 222.51 KiB | Viewed 2760 times ]
Yet, notably the rings need further work, to reproduce their differing
albedo, when looking from above and below the ringplane (!), respectively. A further independent requirement is to implement the correct
transparency of the ring as function of the radial distance from Saturn's cloudy surface. In my case, the transparency is OK, as well as the one-sided albedo (top view). The strongly varying transparency profile of the Saturn ring was derived from hires stellar transit data taken from Earth!
Fridger