Saturn

[astromackem]

There seems to be a bit of chat about Saturn at the minute. Is it at a decent height in the sky at a sociable hour at the moment?

I havent' seen it yet and I can't wait.

[Roy Challen]

You'll have to wait a bit longer, unless you can get out during the early hours. Should be best viewed around August or so.

[Fozzie]

It's not best placed at the moment, rises in the south east around 11pm, if you've got a clear view in that direction you can't miss it..

Pinched this of Jodrell banks Website.. so later in the coming months looks better..

Saturn reaches opposition - that is when it be approximatly due south at midnight (UT) or 1 am (BST) - on the 23rd of May, so it will be visible for most of the hours of darkness.  The beautiful ring system has now opened out to ~24 degrees - virtually as open as they ever become.   Saturn brightens to magnitude 0.0 during the month - the brightest it has been for eight years - largely due to the fact that the ring system is now quite open. Its globe spans 18.5 arc seconds across and the ring system 42 arc seconds.

Ta

Fozzie

[Stu]

Nice one Fozzie. Must make an effort to have a look at it soon

[John]

I had a nice view of Saturn last week. It was around 1:00 am I seem to recall and the planet is low this oppostion so takes ages to appear in a gap between a neighbours roof and a large tree in that direction. I guess I'll be getting windows of around 90 minutes observing it unless I decide to observe from somewhere other than my garden.

The rings are wide open at the moment so Cassinis Divsion and the ring structure were really well defined. On the planetary disk the equatorial belt and polar cap darkening was noticable but as ever it's so much more subtle than we get used to with Jupiter.

I think 5 moons were on show on that occasion.

If it was as high in the sky as Jupiter has been this year it would be a truly stunning Saturnian opposition but it's low altitude will add some challenges I think.

[knobby]

Had a quick go at imaging it last weekend at 2.30 am ! just cleared neighbours roofs so bobbing about a bit but quite nice to look at ... gazed for about 30 minutes then imaged. Well worth staying up for.

[Paul73]

I had my best ever views of Saturn about a week ago. Clear division in the rings and banding on the planet. Held 240x happily.

Worth missing some sleep for!!

Paul

[Roy Challen]

_{Ooops meant to say June not August in my previous post, but then everyone already knew that didn't they?!}

[Astro Imp]

_{Ooops meant to say June not August in my previous post, but then everyone already knew that didn't they?!}

Of course 

[mikeyrea]

Isn't it a bit light in June?   Maybe it's not so important with Saturn....

I had some great views of Jupiter last month before it was properly dark

[Paul73]

The lighter nights don't effect Saturn too badly. Don't get too hung up on the lack of Astro darkness unless you live in Scotland. There is still loads to see.

Paul

[mikeyrea]

I'm in Northern lreland, about the same latitude as Lockerbie in Scotland, and Blyth in England.  

Might be a few late nights in June!

[Uplooker]

Proper darkness is not required when looking at the planets

Sent from my Fone

[faulksy]

cant wait to view this properly in my dob, my 5mm pentax should be great and my tv zoom that calv gave me

[estwing]

Hired Mike...

[Pleiades M45]

Usually well above the horizon around here at the time.

However I am not sure where you are located and what obstacles there are.

[astromackem]

Usually well above the horizon around here at the time. However I am not sure where you are located and what obstacles there are.

North East England.

Trees to the East- House to the West