Saturn’s rings tilted for optimum viewing

By Joe Rao

updated 2:30 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2008

Saturn is now at its best in our late-winter sky. It appears below and to the left of the conspicuous "sickle" or backwards question-mark pattern of stars marking the head and mane of the constellation of Leo, the Lion.

It will arrive at opposition to the sun Feb. 24, when it lies on the opposite side of the sky from the sun; rising as the sun sets, reaching its highest point in the southern sky at midnight and setting as the sun rises.

What we see with the naked eye is a bright yellowish-white "star" shining with a steady light. Through a telescope this object is enlarged into one of the finest showpieces of the night sky, thanks to its great ring system in all of its icy, glimmering elegance.

In small telescopes, the rings surprise even veteran observers with their chilling elegance even though it is expected. Certainly they will delight anyone this winter who received a telescope as a holiday gift. Any telescope magnifying more than 30 power will show them.

Look now!
Take a look at Saturn's rings now, because soon our view of them will be compromised by the fact that they are turning more and more edge-on to our line of sight.

Currently the rings are tilted at just over 8 degrees toward us and, actually, they will appear to open slightly to nearly 10 degrees by the beginning of May. However, later this year, the rings will appear to rapidly close up and by the end of this year the tilt of the rings will be less than one degree and they will appear as nothing more than a thin line bisecting the ball of the planet.

And by the late summer of 2009, there will come a period of time when the rings will appear to vanish, as they will be turned exactly edgewise to us.

Some Saturn stats
At an average distance of 886 million miles from the sun, or about twice as far away as Jupiter, Saturn goes around the sun once in 29.5 Earth-years. Second only to Jupiter in size at 74,900 miles, it's more than nine times the size of our Earth. Like Jupiter, it's wrapped in thick clouds which run in parallel bands across its disk.

At last count, Saturn has 61 satellites; the largest one, Titan, appears as a star of eighth magnitude and appears to orbit Saturn in about 16-days.

But the really impressive feature of Saturn is its famous ring system.

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