8/9/2023 0 Comments Saturn through telescope 2021![]() ![]() Searching for "web planetarium software" will give you more sites if you like. If you need help, try using some online planetarium software like Stellarium or The Sky Live (make sure you enter your location, too). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute The shadow of the rings can be seen on the cloud tops as well. This Cassini image from 2011 shows the tail of the storm wrapping all the way around the planet. Saturn’s face can change: In 2010 an enormous storm broke out in Saturn’s northern hemisphere, discovered by an amateur astronomer. I'll note the next opposition of Saturn after this one is August 14, 2022. A million kilometers here or there hardly makes a difference (like, 0.1%), so no biggie if you can't get out to see it for a while. ![]() I'll note that this doesn't mean you have to rush out and see Saturn at that very moment! It'll be bright and essentially up all night for weeks, even months (as it has been for a while, too). The time it takes for Saturn, Earth, and the Sun to line up again is about 378 days (1.035 years) and that's the synodic period (from synod, from "related to a meeting", which is rather poetic). That 29-year orbital period of Saturn is measured against the background stars, so we call it the sidereal period (from sidus, meaning "star"). It's just like the hands on a clock the big hand sweeps around once per hour, but the little hand moves a little too during that time, so the big hand doesn't meet up again with it for a little more than a hour. But Saturn does orbit around the Sun, in the same direction as Earth does, so we have to spend a little bit of extra time catching up to it. If Saturn didn't move then opposition would occur once every Earth year. Earth is closer to the Sun and moves much more rapidly, completing an orbit in one year. Saturn takes about 29 years to orbit the Sun once. Win win win.Ī 9-image mosaic of Saturn as seen from the Cassini spacecraft, which orbited the planet for 13 years. So it's up all night, as big as it gets, and as bright as it gets. It's up all night! So by the time the sky gets good and dark Saturn should be up high enough off the eastern horizon to see, and will continue to rise until shortly after 01:00 local time, when it's due south and as high as it'll get in the sky. Bonus: because we're closest at opposition Saturn appears brightest, too.Īlso, since it's opposite the Sun in the sky, it rises when the Sun sets, and sets when the Sun rises. You can't see the size directly by eye - it's still pretty far away, so it appears as a star-like dot - but any sort of magnification aid like binoculars will help. At any other time in its orbit the Earth will be farther from Saturn, making it appear smaller, which is why this is a great time to look at Saturn. Another way to think of it is that Earth is directly between Saturn and the Sun, so our two planets are as close as they can be. We call this event opposition, because Saturn is opposite the Sun in the sky. That's still a long way - space is big, hence its name - but the planet will look incredible and gorgeous even through a small telescope. On Sunday night, August 1, the incredible beauty that is Saturn will be the closest it gets to Earth all year.Īt that time it will be about 1,336,700,000 kilometers from Earth. ![]()
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