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| Saturn Opposition | 03.07.2009 21:30 |
| The planet Saturn will be in opposition March 8, 2009. Opposition in this case means that the Sun, Earth, and Saturn are lined up, with Earth in the middle. This is important, because this is when Saturn is the closest to Earth during the year, and closer means brighter and marginally larger in a telescope view. | |
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The closest that Saturn will be to Earth is 8.394 AU, around 17 hours UTC on 2009-Mar-08 (also, it takes the shortest amount of time for light from Saturn to reach us, at 69.814 minutes). If you've looked at the ringed planet recently, you know that the rings appear nearly edge-on right now. They will be edge-on from our point of view on Earth this September, 2009, which also happens to be near the time of Saturn conjunction. | |
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Saturn is currently in the bounds of the constellation Leo, South of the asterism's hind legs, but the brightest object in that general direction, so you can't miss it. It also has a noticeable golden tint. Good luck seeing Saturn during opposition this year. | |
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