Good evening fellow stargazers!
On the night of Sunday, August 14th, Saturn reached its opposition (or nearest point) to Earth in its rotation around the sun coming to within 823 million miles (or 1.32 billion km). That's pretty close in terms of the Solar System in general, but to put it in astronomical terms: 73 light-minutes -- or about 8.8 astronomical units (AU).
In the night sky, at its closest approach, Saturn, the second-largest planet in our Solar System, appears to us here on Earth as a faint magnitude 0.3 star. At the present time it can be found close to the faint summer Constellation Capricornus the Sea-Goat -- which I kinda outlined in the photo I took, although the stars are far too faint and the sky wasn't nearly as clear as I'd liked.
Though it appears as a faint star in the night sky, the sixth planet of our Solar System is actually around 10 times the diameter of Earth at about 72,400 miles (116,500 km) across -- and that's not counting the planet's famous ring system that circle the gas giant. Including the rings themselves, you could sit about 21 Earth's across the entire length of the planet!
Unfortunately its next to impossible to view this rings from Earth without a good telescope, and a very clear sky. Though at full magnification, with a good pair of binoculars Saturn appears to be more oval-shaped.
No comments:
Post a Comment