Aurora of Saturn

Have you ever seen the Southern or Northern Lights? Earth isn’t the only planet that puts on these beautiful light shows, which are also called the “aurora“. Aurora have been seen at both poles of Saturn, too, as well as at the poles of Jupiter. These “curtains of light” sometimes rise 1,200 miles (2,000 km) above the cloud tops near Saturn’s poles. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) took this above picture in 2004.

Watch the movie.

Sunset Planets
Mars and Saturn are meeting at a particular place with Venus to form a skinny triangle in the sunset sky in the West. When the sun sets tonight, go outside and look West.

Venus pops out of the twilight first, followed by Saturn, then Mars by binoculars or a small telescope.

See the SkyMap for tonight (Monday 26th July 2010), also Friday 30th July 2010 and Saturday 31st July 2010 when Saturn and Mars are only 2^o apart.

What are Saturn’s made of ?
They are made of billions of pieces of ice, dust and rocks.

Some of these particles are as small as a grain of sail, while others are as big as houses.

These are so many of them that the rings look solid.

The rings shine because the ice particles in them reflect light by the Sun (average distance from the Sun :- 888 million miles).

The rings is visible to the naked eye for about 10 months of the year, it appears like a star and takes about 2.5 years to pass through one zodiacal constellation – a binoculars and telescope are needed to make out the ring system.

Saturn is located at the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin), direction at the SouthWest  horizon – see the Sky Map.

Above the image was captured by Miguel Claro, Portugal.
(Derekscope’s archives :- Thursday 15th July 2010.)

The 5.67 days old Crescent Moon is below Saturn as they form a right-angle (90`) with Mars at 22:00 / 10pm tonight.

See the SkyMap.

Click here for enlarge image.

The Moon is south of the Star Regulus in the constellation of Leo (The Lion) between the Ring Planet (Saturn) and the Red Planet (Mars), making a great photo opportunity. (for example)

Saturn’s moon transit – Rhea
Tonight is an interesting transit event that you will be able to spot from 10-inch telescope onwards, you may just glimpse them with an 8-inch telescope under a good observing condition.

The transit of a moon across Saturn to spot the shadow of Rhea against the Saturn bright face, however the trailing shadows are nice and dark so often slightly easier to pick out.

Click here for enlarge image.
More information about Rhea.

Click here for enlarge image by Antoine Vergara Astrophotography.

You will find the planet Saturn located in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) in the South Eastern sky, 10 degrees to the Moon’s upper left.

The constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) is the second largest of all the constellations.  It lies on the celestial equator between Leo and Libra.  Virgo has some interest to contain the nearest large cluster of galaxies – The Virgo Cluster.

You won’t see them well placed tonight due of the bright Full Moon, but remember that area to observe for later in the dark skies, and the best seen for The Virgo Cluster from around April 10th till around May 22nd.

See the SkyMap and Star Chart Atlas.

The Ringed planet – Saturn, reaches peak visibility the night of March 22nd, when it lies opposite the Sun in our sky and remains visible all night and marks the best time of the year to view the ringed planet because it was closest to Earth and thus appears it’s bigger and brightest, when it lies opposite the Sun in our sky and remains visible all night.

Here Derekscope has all the tools you need to get most of this great observing opportunity for tonight and all nights till 20th June 2010.

See the SkyMap.
Click here for a rough comparison of the sizes of Saturn and Earth.

The Moon and Saturn are just 8 degree apart as they are rise into the South-Eastern Sky.

See the Skymap.

Not brightest planet – Saturn rises by 9.30 pm tonight, it is the second largest planet in the Solar System behind Jupiter and mostly amateur astronomer’s favourite because of it’s beautiful Ring System.

The Ring System is still close to edge on – only 5 degree tilt angle at the beginning of this month  and so you will see them appearing very thin. (the reason why Saturn is not a bright at the moment as it when the Rings are shown more open, then it will becomes more brighter in the sky.

See the SkyMap.