Starwatch: Saturn joins the parade of the summer planet | Lifestyle

. I hear oohs and awws and many other reactions during my star parties when my arsenal of telescopes is turned towards Saturn.

Even if you have a small telescope, you can enjoy the majesty of the ring wonder of our solar system. Many long-time amateur astronomers can recall their first look at Saturn through a department store telescope as a starting point for 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, the Earth is in a line between the sun and Saturn. Not only does this make Saturn available all night, but it puts Saturn at a minimum distance from Earth. This happens with Saturn and the Earth every 378 days.

Toward the end of the evening twilight, look into the southeast sky for the object of the bright stars that you can see in this immediate region and that will be Saturn. A little further up in the south-southwest sky is Jupiter. That's 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 75,000 miles in diameter, nearly 10 times that of the Earth.

While Saturn's ring system is so vast in width, it's only 50 feet thick! The best theory for the origin of the rings of Saturn is that they were created 100 million years ago, when a moon or an aquatic comet approached a little too much of Saturn and was simply blown by pieces of debris and ice, shredded by the tidal forces of the massive planet. All of these pieces vary in size from dust particles to the size of the school bus, spread in their own individual orbits in almost the same plane around Saturn.

The ring system is so bright because of all the ice. In fact, most of the brightness of Saturn seen from the Earth is due to the fact that sunlight bounces off the ring system, even though Saturn is as far apart as this one

Saturn just like his big neighbor Jupiter. these moons act as gravitational "shepherd" moons that help keep Saturn's ring system intact. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, and in fact it is even larger 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 sorts of data and images, and has even photographed sunlight reflecting off one of the giant methane lakes. In 2005, a probe launched by Cassini even landed on Titan.

As fascinating as Titan, a small moon, Enceladus, really captured astronomical titles while Cassini photographed plumes of water gushing from the cracks in the lunar surface. It is believed that the tidal forces of the much more massive Saturn are strong enough to heat Encelade's interior enough for liquid water.

Wherever there is liquid water, there is always a small chance of life. Stay on the lookout – there will inevitably be more opportunities in the years to come.

Just as with the ring system, any telescope will show you at least some of Saturn's moons that look like tiny stars. Titan decidedly brighter than the rest. They change positions from evening to night while they are obediently circling around the big planet.

When you take out your telescope to see Saturn, it is best to wait after 11pm. or so, Saturn can rise high enough that you do not have to see so much of the fuzzy atmosphere of the Earth. In addition, be sure to take out your telescope with all the eyepieces for at least half an hour before starting to watch so that the optics can adapt to outside temperatures.

One last thing: when you watch Saturn in your field of vision or any other celestial object, try to watch it continuously through the eyepiece for 10 to 15 minutes. The more you look, the more details you will see.

As well as Saturn for the rest of this summer and early fall, there is yet another planet joining the parade of the summer planet. Mars will grab star headlines as it sweeps into the celestial scene in the early evening later this month. It will be as bright and close to Earth as it has been in 15 years!

I will have a lot more on the Martian invasion of 2018 in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, if you are a true night owl, it is high enough to see well after midnight.