Posted on Aug 3, 2021
Look up! Saturn shines bright, shows off rings as it reaches opposition.
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Gear up for Saturn's annual show in the night sky!
Starting Monday (Aug. 2), you can find Saturn shining in the sky as part of a celestial phenomenon called opposition. Earth and the ringed planet will be on the same side of the sun and connected with our star by an invisible line, allowing skygazers on Earth to see a fully illuminated Saturn. Saturn reaches this brightest point at about 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) on Monday, according to the website EarthSky.org. It will be highest in the sky around midnight local time and located in the constellation Capricornus.
Skywatchers will be able to spot several gems, the most obvious being Saturn's rings. This year, Saturn's northern hemisphere will be tilted in our direction at a slant that allows for a nice look at Saturn's rings inclined at an angle of 18 degrees with respect to Earth, according to the website In-The-sky.org. The angle should also allow sunlight to reflect off the icy rings to illuminate them from our perspective.
Starting Monday (Aug. 2), you can find Saturn shining in the sky as part of a celestial phenomenon called opposition. Earth and the ringed planet will be on the same side of the sun and connected with our star by an invisible line, allowing skygazers on Earth to see a fully illuminated Saturn. Saturn reaches this brightest point at about 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) on Monday, according to the website EarthSky.org. It will be highest in the sky around midnight local time and located in the constellation Capricornus.
Skywatchers will be able to spot several gems, the most obvious being Saturn's rings. This year, Saturn's northern hemisphere will be tilted in our direction at a slant that allows for a nice look at Saturn's rings inclined at an angle of 18 degrees with respect to Earth, according to the website In-The-sky.org. The angle should also allow sunlight to reflect off the icy rings to illuminate them from our perspective.
Look up! Saturn shines bright, shows off rings as it reaches opposition.
Posted from livescience.com
Astronomy
Science Fiction
Space
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
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Saturn is bright in the sky, right now, because of Earth's proximity to it; it's at opposition, which is the closest it gets. Saturn's brightness, however, is also impacted by its tilt. The greater the tilt, the more of it's fabulous ring system reflects sunlight back to us. That happened back in 2017, and it's on a waning phase. It's still got most of its tilt these days, but that will get less and less over time, until right around the next Presidential Election (or Summer Olympics, if you're not so political) when Saturn's tilt, relative to the Earth, will put its rings edge-on to us. Then it will gradually become greater until the next maximum in 2039. I'll be collection Social Security by then.
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Lt Col Charlie Brown Kind of Hard to See for Me Lately, Working Downtown as a Dispatcher. Too Much Light Pollution.
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Lt Col Timothy Cassidy-Curtis
Charlie, Saturn should be at least visible to you, even in the City. I live near Long Beach, and I can see it.
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