fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Saturn at its best

by Bob Berman
April 1, 2016
in Columns, Nature
0
(NASA)
(NASA)

In our culture of publicity and hard-sell, it’s tempting to exaggerate. Even with celestial events, the media often cry wolf. But one planet never disappoints. Through any telescope with more than 30x, Saturn elicits gasps. Over the years, I’ve found that most visitors to our observatory either say, “Oh my God!” or “That’s not real!” when their pupils meet the eyepiece.

Oddly, photos of the ringed world fail to pack the same visceral punch. You have to see it for yourself.

This is the time. Last Sunday, Saturn came nearest to us for 2013, and it will remain close, big and bright through all of May. More importantly, those fabled rings, which have been oriented edgewise or nearly so for the past six years, are now tilted 18 degrees from sideways, revealing exquisite detail. The thinner, darker outer band – the unimaginatively named “A ring” – is clearly separated from the broader, whiter B ring by an ink-black space. This is the famous Cassini Division, a gap that shows up wonderfully with only 100x on nights when the stars are steady and not twinkling.

Those rings are fashioned of countless chunks of ordinary water ice, typically the size of beachballs. The rings span 100,000 miles, but are only about 35 feet thick: so thin, they’re analogous to a sheet of paper the size of a city block. That’s why they can seem to vanish entirely when seen edgewise.

Twice as reflective as the ball of Saturn, the rings double Saturn’s brightness when they present their maximum face toward Earth and Sun, which they will do three years from now. That hemisphere being tilted our way since 2009 – and continuing for 15 years – is the north face, the one whose pole is surrounded by a bizarre hexagon 60 miles high, which could enclose five Planet Earths.

Say you’re sold and want to find Saturn for yourself. If it were one of the sky’s most dazzling stars, the way Venus or Jupiter always are, this would be a piece of cake. But it’s easy anyway.

Look high overhead around 9 or 9:30 p.m. and you’ll see the Big Dipper. This is when its seven stars are highest in the sky, nearly straight up. Let its curvy handle “arc” downward to brilliant orange Arcturus in the east. Continue downward along that arc and you’ll see two lowish bright stars – the only bright stars down there in the southeast. The one on the right is blue and higher up; this is the famous Spica, Virgo’s alpha star. The one on the left is slightly brighter and a bit lower. This is Saturn. Easy.

You might also notice that Saturn twinkles less than Spica. No problem finding it. And no rush, because the planet will stay great for weeks and weeks.

Now you have to get those friends who have a telescope to point it at that spot. You won’t be sorry.

Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

Bob Berman

Bob Berman, Ulster Publishing’s Night Sky columnist since 1974, is the world’s most widely read astronomer. Since the mid-1990s, his celebrated "Strange Universe" feature has appeared monthly in Astronomy magazine, the largest circulation periodical on the subject. Berman is also the long-time astronomy editor of the Old Farmer’s Almanac. He was Discover magazine’s monthly columnist from 1989-2006. He has authored more than a thousand published mass-market articles and been a guest on such TV shows as Today and Late Night with David Letterman. Berman is director of two Ulster County observatories and the Storm King Observatory at Cornwall. He was adjunct professor of astronomy and physics at Marymount college from 1995-2000.

Related Posts

Blue: Your favorite color
Columns

Blue: Your favorite color

June 24, 2025
Gala for Wild Earth celebrates nature and education
Entertainment

Gala for Wild Earth celebrates nature and education

June 20, 2025
How we see each other and ourselves
Columns

How we see each other and ourselves

June 16, 2025
Suddenly summer
Columns

Suddenly summer

June 11, 2025
Outer space clickbait
Columns

Outer space clickbait

June 11, 2025
Cloud-watching: a summer guide
Nature

Cloud-watching: a summer guide

June 7, 2025
Next Post

Out with the gluten

Weather

Kingston, NY
88°
Mostly Cloudy
5:26 am8:35 pm EDT
Feels like: 97°F
Wind: 9mph S
Humidity: 60%
Pressure: 29.93"Hg
UV index: 7
TueWedThu
86°F / 68°F
86°F / 68°F
82°F / 66°F
Kingston, NY weather forecast for tomorrow ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing