When you look back at the Earth from just about any distance inside the inner solar system our world is such a beautiful sight. Of course I’ve not had that privilege, but like you I’ve seen the pictures from space, including the iconic photo of Earthrise as seen from the moon by the Apollo astronauts. Even from the Curiosity rover on Mars the Earth shows up on photos as a delightful blue dot.
In this stargazers mind, at least, Saturn is the second most beautiful planet in this solar system and certainly the best planet to gaze upon from here on Earth, even with a small telescope. Jupiter is great, but I so look forward to training my telescope on the ringed wonder of our solar system. Now it’s true that other planets like Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus also have ring systems, but nothing beats the ring system surrounding Saturn, the second biggest planet in our local family of planets.
Saturn has come into prime time for viewing this month in the Everett sky and will be available in our evening skies through the summer. It’s at its closest approach to the Earth this month, something astronomers call opposition. That’s when the Earth in its one year orbit around the sun, and Saturn in its 29-year circuit around our home star, line up in such a way that the Earth lies roughly in a line between the sun and Saturn. This happens about once a year. Actually, the exact opposition date was May 10, but Saturn is still just about as close at a little more than 825 million miles away. Another benefit of the astronomical geometry of the Sun, Earth and Saturn is that the ringed wonder occupies our celestial dome all night long, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise.
Saturn is certainly not the brightest star-like object in our sky, but it’s easy enough to locate. All you have to do is look in the low southeast sky as soon as it’s dark enough after evening twilight. Saturn will be the brightest star-like object in that part of the sky. A little higher up and to the right in the more direct southern sky is Mars, shining a little brighter than Saturn with its red-orange hue. This month Saturn makes a triangle with the two brightest stars in the faint constellation Libra. These two shiners have huge mouthfuls for names. Just to the right of Saturn is the star Zubenelgenubi (pronounced zoo-ben-el-je-new-bee). If that’s not a long enough star name for you, just to the upper left of Saturn is Zubeneschamali (pronounced zuba-nesh-a-molly).
I absolutely love showing people Saturn through my telescopes. I just stand back and wait for the oohs and ahs, especially from the kids. The great thing about Saturn is that you don’t need that big of a scope to enjoy it. Saturn and its ring system can be seen easily though even the smallest of scopes. In fact, if you can’t resolve Saturn’s rings through your scope there’s something wrong with it.
Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system with a diameter of 75,000 miles, but the ring system has a diameter over 150,000 miles and that’s more than half of the distance between the Earth and our moon. Even though the ring system is that wide it’s only about 50 feet thick. Because of the inclination of Saturn’s polar axis to its orbit around the Sun, the inclination of its ring system goes through a 28-year cycle. Back in 2009 the ring system was on edge from our view on Earth and nearly invisible. The angle has opened up greatly since then, allowing us to really see the rings and also making Saturn a little brighter. The bummer about viewing Saturn this summer is that because of where it is located among the stars this year it will never get all that high in the sky where the Earth’s atmosphere is a little thinner from our view.
Saturn’s rings are composed of billions of mainly tiny bits of ice and ice-covered rocks. Some of the debris is the size of a minivan but most of it is very minute. Because of the ice the rings are very reflective to sunlight and that’s why they show up so well. In fact, when the plane of Saturn’s ring system is turned more our way than it is right now, most of the light we see when we glance at Saturn with the naked eye is the sunshine reflecting off of the rings.
How and why the debris got there is up for debate. One camp says that the debris has been there since Saturn coalesced into a planet more than four billion years ago. Others say that a passing small moon or comet got too close to Saturn as little as 100 million years ago and was ripped to shreds by Saturn’s strong tidal forces. Because of the gravitational effect of several of Saturn’s sixty moons, the debris got spread out into the lovely ring system that you can enjoy with even a backyard telescope.
At last count Saturn has 60 moons with the largest one, Titan, being larger than the planet Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. Titan has a heavy methane atmosphere and even has methane lakes. The Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn for years and has collected all kinds of data and photographs. In one of its latest pictures you can actually see sunlight reflecting on one of the giant methane lakes. As fascinating as Titan is, the small moon Enceladus has really grabbed some astronomical headlines recently as the Cassini has photographed water plumes shooting from cracks in the moon’s surface. Enceladus is now believed to have a lake that’s maybe bigger than Lake Superior. As with the ring system, just about any telescope will show you at least some of Saturn’s moons that resemble tiny little stars swarming Saturn, with Titan being decidly brighter than the rest.
Enjoy Saturn through your telescope, and allow me to make some suggestions to make your viewing experience even better. First, make sure your telescope and all of the eyepieces sit outside for at least a half hour so the optics can acclimate to the outside temperature. I would also wait to view Saturn until after it’s had a chance to rise high enough in the sky so you don’t have to look through as much of our Earth’s blurring atmosphere. After about 11 p.m. should do the trick. Try to take long continuous looks through your telescope at Saturn and its moon. As your eye gets used to the light level you’ll see more and more detail. Have a splendid Saturn experience.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores at http://www.adventurepublications.net.
The Everett Astronomical Society welcomes new members and puts on public star parties. Find it online at www.everettastro.org/
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