Dragonfly Mission to Saturn moon Titan

[JB47394]

I was wondering if the parent planet Saturn can be seen through the haze with naked eye?

I don't believe so. It might show up as a bright patch on the sky, kinda like the moon on a night with a scud of clouds. Note that Saturn would be 11 times the diameter of the Moon as seen from the Earth.

I have to take back the characterization of naked eye surface visibility. Dragonfly is apparently going with visible light cameras and artificial lighting, like the Huygens probe. So the problem with seeing the surface of Titan from space is that there is a haze layer high in the atmosphere that blocks visible light, but once you get through that, you can see. The descent video was of visible light.

Here's an image of Titan when looking at it in infrared from space.

Ultimately, if you get to the surface of Titan and look around, you can see, but bring a flashlight because it's dark.

I've had a terrible time trying to find good information about Huygens and lighting, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

 

[Electroman]

Since it is edge on with the rings, I don't believe you can get any view of the rings either.

This 3D interactive image in NASA page gives you some idea: Titan - NASA Science

 

[scaesare]

But the probe could see the ground from many kilometers up, and could even image the sun through the haze of the atmosphere.

What I didn't realize was that the imaging was being done in the infrared. Around 2 micrometers is apparently the only wavelength of light that passes through Titan's atmosphere. So if you were to look out over the surface of Titan, you'd see a thick orange fog. No visibility at all, as far as I can tell. But flip on your infrared optics and you'd see fine.

[JWST nods knowingly]