Saturn joins the parade of the summer planet – Twin Cities

There is congestion of the planet this month when Saturn joins Venus, Mercury and Jupiter in the heavens at the beginning of the evening. I always hear oohs, ahs and other reactions during my star parties when my arsenal of telescopes is turned to Saturn – and for good reason. Even through a small telescope, you can see the majesty of the ring wonder of our solar system. Many longtime amateur astronomers can show their first look at Saturn through a store telescope as a springboard to this great hobby!

Not only is Saturn back in our night skies and available until morning twilight, but it is as close on Earth as it will be in 2018. On June 27, Saturn and Earth, in their respective orbits around the sun, have reached what astronomers call opposition. As you can see on the diagram, it is then that the Earth is in a line between the sun and Saturn. Not only does this make Saturn available all night but puts Saturn at a minimum distance from the Earth. This happens with Saturn and the Earth every 378 days

Toward the end of evening twilight, look in the southeast sky for the brightest light object that you can see in this immediate area. I will be Saturn. A little further up in the south-southwest sky is Jupiter. This is currently the only thing that surpasses Saturn in the southern half of the early evening sky.

Even though Saturn and Earth are at their closest approach to each other for 2018, they are really far apart. The second largest planet in our solar system is still better than 830 million miles. An airliner flying at a higher cruise speed would take more than 170 years to get there!

The Earth is still my favorite planet in our solar system, but the dynamic ring system makes Saturn a close second. It is about 75,000 miles in diameter, nearly 10 times that of the Earth. The ring system of Saturn is vast but it is only 50 feet thick. The best theory for the origin of the rings of Saturn is that they were created about 100 million years ago when a moon or an aquatic comet was getting too close to the planet and was blown into debris and ice, shredded by the tidal forces of the massive planet. All of these pieces range from the size of dust particles to the size of the school bus and are spread out on their own individual orbits in almost the same plane around Saturn. The ring system is so brilliant because of all the ice. In fact, most of Saturn's brilliance seen from Earth is due to the fact that sunlight is bouncing off the ring system, even though Saturn is as far apart as that.

Saturn, like its largest neighbor Jupiter, has many moons. these moons act as gravitational "shepherd" moons that help keep Saturn's ring system intact. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn; in fact, it is even bigger than the planet Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. Titan has a heavy methane atmosphere and even has methane lakes. The Cassini spacecraft that has orbited Saturn for years has collected all kinds of data and images and even photographed sunlight reflecting off one of the giant methane lakes. In 2005, a probe launched from the Cassini probe landed on Titan

As fascinating as Titan, Encelade, a small moon, really grabbed the astronomical headlines because Cassini photographed plumes of water that spring from the cracks of the lunar surface. It is believed that the tidal forces of the much larger Saturn are strong enough to heat the Encelade inside enough for liquid water. Wherever there is liquid water, there is always a small chance of life. Stay tuned, there will inevitably be more opportunities in the coming years

Just like the ring system, just about any telescope will show you at least a few Saturn moons that look like tiny stars. , with Titian decidedly brighter than the rest. Moons change their positions from night to night as they merrily turn around the big planet.

The best time to see Saturn with your telescope is after 23 hours. The planet will therefore be high enough that you do not have to see it through the blurry atmosphere of the Earth near the horizon. Also be sure to take out your telescope and eyepieces for at least half an hour before starting to watch so that the optics can adapt to outside temperatures. And finally, when you watch Saturn through your telescope or other celestial object, try to continually look through the eyepiece for 10 to 15 minutes. The more you look, the more details you will see.