On the 27th of June Saturn reaches opposition, adding to the plethora of planets and asteroids currently at their best. Pity most of them are so low down.
Unfortunately, this will be the case for a good number of years yet.
The rings at this time are widely presented towards the Earth, making a spectacular sight in any size telescope. The two webcam images above I took in 2004 and 2007, show the tilt of the rings as they were starting to close.
The rings were last edge-on in 2009.
Since last year, the rings have started to slowly close again and they will once-again be edge-on in 2025.
While looking at the rings, also have a look for some of Saturn’s many Moons.
Titan will be the most obvious to see as it is so bright.
I took the image below in July 2015.
The moons as identified are labelled with their magnitude given for the day of opposition:
T – Titan. Mag. +8.5.
I – Iapetus. Mag. +11.3.
R – Rhea. Mag. +9.9.
Te – Tethys. +10.4
E – Enceladus. +11.9
D- Dione. Mag. +10.6
Mimas (Not Captured). Mag.+13.1
Don’t forget to also look out for any cloud features on the planet.
Saturn has a system of bright zones and dark belts just like Jupiter, but a haze at the top of the atmosphere tends to soften this, making them more difficult to see. Keep a look out for any white spots (Storms) that may be visible amongst the clouds.
One notable effect that happens as opposition approaches, the rings of Saturn start to become much brighter. This Seeliger Effect is caused by the ring particles not casting shadows on one another, due to the angle of the Sun to us on Earth viewing the planet. The brightness increase should occur a couple of weeks either side of the date of opposition.
This is shown quite nicely by Christopher Go’s images of Saturn shown below.
Click here or on the image below for more details about this effect.
This phenomena is so pronounced at times that the brightening of the planet can even be quite obvious to the naked eye observer.
So, while it is still at its best, get out and have a look at the glorious Lord Of The Rings.