Just like yesterday, the weather here was atrocious. On top of the ice glaze, we had 5 inches of snow. I had no time to do the APOD as the driveway needed shoveling before I could get out and to work this early AM.
Saturn is much brighter when its rings are "open" (tilted so we can see them). When the rings are wide open, Saturn can appear as bright as magnitude -0.5, and when the rings are edge-on it can appear as dim as magnitude +1.
Here is Saturn with the rings edge-on, also courtesy of Hubble:
Thanks for the post! I am going to get my telescope out tonight and check out Saturn while it's showing off.
