Saturn: What to look for ?

[John]

Before Saturn observing gets started in earnest, I thought it might be useful to post this illustration (below) from Sky & Telescope magazine of the main features of the planet so folks new to observing it can have an idea of what they are looking at. Obviously this image is much larger and more detailed than the planet will appear in amateur scopes (well most of them anyway !) and the rings will be tilted to a more "open" position this year.

This covers the planet and ring system. Saturn has a nice retinue of moons of which 5 or 6 can often be seen quite readily in small to medium aperture scopes.

The only things I'd add to the captions is that the Encke Gap / Division is notoriously hard to spot even with larger apertures however there is a dimming in the "A" ring just inside the position of the Encke Gap that can sometimes be spotted which is known as the Encke Minima (not labeled on the illustration). These two features sometimes get confused.

The "C" or "Crepe" ring is quite a bit fainter than the "A" and "B" rings but is seen reasonably well in medium or even small apertures scopes when seeing conditions are good.

The famous Cassini Division does not always stand out as strongly as you think it ought to from the pictures we see, especially when the seeing is poor, although the ring tilt this year should make it easier to see well compared to when the rings were are a narrower angle to us.

There are a couple of shadow effects to look out for too. One is the shadow of the planets disk on the ring system. This can be seen on the lower, left of the planets disk in the illustration cutting across the rings. The other feature is the shadow of the rings across the planet which are often seen combined with what is labeled as "C ring on globe" in the illustration as a darker line that follows a slightly different radius than the ring as it follows the curve of the planet.

I've found that Saturn will take pretty high magnifications well if seeing conditions allow, better than Jupiter in this respect. As ever though, it's sometimes worth dropping back on the magnification a bit to tease out the more subtle features such as the cloud belts on the planet which are really not (usually) as prominent as they are on Jupiter.

I hope this helps a bit and I'd be delighted if other members would like to add their tips and wrinkles for getting the best from Saturn this year as well as putting me straight if I've mangled any information here

[DaddyBear]

Hi John,

Thanks this definitely helps. I'm eager to try my new SW 200P on Saturn, can't wait for it to rise higher in the sky before midnight.

[Kirscovitch]

Good post! I am looking forward to getting some decent images this spring and summer. Jupiter was my main target this winter and I know that Saturn will be more challenging but looking forward to it!

[johnd]

The first and only time I've seen Saturn was 20 years ago in a friends small scope but even then the disk with a band whilst tiny still thrilled. I'm hoping that I will be blown away with my SW 300P this year. Is May the best time to view this year?

[Kirscovitch]

Opposition is May 10 so I would think in the week or so before and after that it will be brilliant.

[Pondus]

Thank you for posting this, very informative.

Saw the Cassini division for the first time 9. april. (8" Dob)

Living as far north as I am, I really need to spend time observing Saturn as much as I can this spring.

It wont be this far above the horizon until 2022, and then the rings wont be in such a favorable position (?)

Nice read

Rune

[entropia]

Thanks for the info. Saturn was next to the moon last night so I decided to take my telescope out. The only time I have seen Saturn was a couple of months ago and it was very low so I had a hard time even finding it. Last night it was so easy because of the moon and the altitude. I would say the rings are a little more open since the last time I have seen them. Since I have a smaller telescope (and I think in need of collimating) I could not distinctly see the Cassini division but you could tell there was a separation. I tried 250x and it was still looking good.

[Special K]

Hi John, thanks for posting that chart. I've been observing Saturn quite a few times but not yet got to grips with the geography. Yesterday morning was a fine view indeed and could notice a definite change of hue. According to the chart this would be the contrast between the NEB and its surrounding zones. It was awesome!

Cassini Division is always apparent with my scope unless seeing is terrible but as you say the Enke Gap is a tough one. I'm looking forward to opposition and cracking out the color filters again! Clear skies.

[alan potts]

John,

A very nice piece of work for old members and new alike, I will again be trying for the Enke division, something I have never seen. I started out back in the 70's and then had a 12.5 inch and never saw it it and now I will try with my LX, maybe the scope is not big enough though I read a book once where it said it was visible with a 8 inch refractor so I would have thought 12 inches would do the trick.

Alan

[AlexB67]

Nice Map John. I had my first good look at it last night this year, around 2:00 AM. 

Saturn played ball nicely once the clearance of the roof factors got out of the way.  I was only using the little 5 inch Dob. I got this Dob last year around May back at that time I would have had am 8mm BST 10mm super MA and 2 x barlow to give me 162x times mag. Amazing a year of practice and the difference can make, or I least I think it must be that in part, plus some better eyepieces, I did not focus on the rings too much, though cassini was immediately obvious. What was striking were the subtle low contrast colour changes going from the equatorial belt down to the north polar region. When I started and looking at my early notes I never recall seeing that so well in so much detial, but they were really prominent and obvious. 

Move on a year I have at my diposal the pentax XW 7mm plus 2x barlow to give me 185x and the BGO 5mm with 1.5x adapter barlow element to give 195x.  On this occasion the former gave me the best views on this planet, possibly in part slighty lower mag, and also yet again a reminder that my barlow in 1.5x mode just does not work so well whatever eyepiece I put it in ( the 1.5x adapter still work best in the BGO when I do use that combo). 

In any case. Contrast and clarity was best with the first combo and that bit easier to see finer features and detail.   There was a bit of thin cloud again and some fog. The views were best in those moments.  What seems nice this year is the tilt is opening up nicely to see the planet itself. I l like how it is facing us this year with the rings opening up a bit.

Bring on a nice Saturn season and cant wait to get the 10 inch Dob on it. I Had a quick look weeks ago but viewing was so poor pushing 150x was a challenge. Last night the little Dob gave great views. 130 pound little DOb with a 10 pound barlow to lower the tone even more, not bad little bit of kit, but with a nice whopping pentax that cost more than the scope  . I think the little Heritage had to grunt a bit to hold a 2x barlow and XW, but it took it on its stride.

[John]

I have never seen the Encke Gap myself although I have seen the Encke Minima when conditions have been very good. I will try for the Gap but it's easy to fool ones self that you are seeing it when the Minima is what you are actually glimpsing. My understanding is that the Encke Gap is a feature that takes exceptional conditions and an exceptional scope to even glimpse but I may be being pessimistic.

I have also seen shading on the inside portion of the "B" ring, where it meets the "C" ring. I believe some observers have seen signs of the "spokes" photographed by the space probes.

The Cassini Division should be easy to spot with the rings opened up this year. A few years back though it was a very different story and all you could get was a hint of the division in the ring ansae when the ring plane was almost edge on to us. It was a little easier to see cloud belts and disk features back then though as the rings did not dominate the view so much.

My favourite Saturnian moon is Enceladus. It's such a tiny world, just 500km in diameter. If it was not one of the most reflective bodies in the solar system I don't think we could see it with our scopes. It can still be a challenge though due to the brightness of Saturn so it's worth picking your moment to try and spot this little ice clad moon when it's at it's furthest elongation from Saturn itself.

[Dannae]

Very nice John, well thought out and nice choice of image

[Dreadz]

Wish I'd seen this post before Friday, would have given me more of an insight into what i was looking at when things finally fell into place and i managed to get a look at Saturn for the very first time through my 10" dob. It was far from ideal - I had to go out onto my drive as Saturn just wouldnt rise high enough to clear the roof tops to be visible from my back garden and this put me directly opposite one of the new 400 billion candle power LED street lights but it was still a wow moment finding Saturn in the EP. Could clearly see the Cassini division and make out somee differentiation in the belts on the the surface but there was only so much my home made dew shield/light shroud could do to stop the street light of doom interfering!!!!!

With any luck a dark site trip might be possible one night this week. Fingers crosed

[AlexB67]

Was looking rather nice this evening, had a good look at rhe rings for the first time in the 10 inch Dob, some very nice views using the 5,6,7mm.  The 7mm was best for showing contrast on the belts ( XW7mm) .  the Radian 6mm and BGO 5mm came into their own for that extra bit of image scale and even tried 300x for the rings. I did not know where the Encke gap should be but had heard of it, as I was out I had no idea from memory if it was on the inner part of the rings outside, so it was an nice unbiased view.

As was  observing I could see something on the outside of the rings near the outer edges ( not cassini of course which was as obvious). Once done, I had to come in an immediately check your image, and believe what I saw was the enke minimum, of minima, clearly there was a very thin ring structure that was darker near the encke gap. very nice

thanks for the image John and little write up.

This planet has me entrigued now, back for a lot more Saturn this year with the big Dob and learn more about this beast.

[nightfisher]

Nice one John, im looking forward to Saturn, not had a chance yet, but will be spending some time and hope to do some imaging as well