Planetary rings and shooting between orbital layers

What is the impact of a planetary ring while a ship is shooting at a target on the other side of it but on a different orbital layer? As this problem came up we have ruled, that a line should be drawn between ships and if the part between planetary ring and ship on high orbit is longer than the other part the planetary ring have no effect, otherwise it is taken into account. But what would be an official ruling?

I believe there is an example in the rule book which shows that if either the attacker or target are in high orbit then the penalties are applied even if the opposing player's ship is in low orbit.

I believe there is an example in the rule book which shows that if either the attacker or target are in high orbit then the penalties are applied even if the opposing player's ship is in low orbit.

Yep the picture on page 53 clearly mentions that you suffer the penalty if the the target is in high orbit and you are in low orbit. So no fancy measuring needed, if one of the ships in in high orbit you suffer the penalty.