Abstract
Radio maps with a resolution of 1″.5 were made of Saturn at 1.3, 2, and 6 cm. The inclination of the ring plane was −5°.4. A fraction of 0.49 ± 0.08 of Saturn's emitted light is transmitted through the rings at λ2 and λ6 cm. This value converts to an effective head-on or normal optical depth of 0.07 ± 0.02. The transparency at this small inclination angle must be provided entirely by the regions of very low optical depth, e.g., the Cassini and Encke's Divisions, and to achieve our number this requires either a relatively large fraction of gaps or a strong forward scattering by the ring particles. The planetary disk appears to be much less limb darkened in the N-S than the E-W direction, while cuts across the planet, averaged over all directions, agree with the theoretical limb-darkening curves for a planet with a uniform atmosphere and solar abundances for all chemical elements.
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