Saturn well placed: rings easily visible

Event Date: December 19th

Time: 12:05(.45) PM

Brief

  Saturn is well placed before the Sun comes up now, further north and west of the binocular-fit Mercury and Venus.  The ringed planet has also given its "beauties" (as people call them) a very good tilt to our line of sight, as we see much more of the rings now than we did a few years ago; back then, they were nearly edge-on.  The first image shows where Saturn is in the southeast at this hour, with Mercury and Venus to its bottom left.  The second image shows the planet highly magnified by about 500 times, in a small field.

click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.

Detailed

  As a result of our viewing Saturn at a latitude further from its equator, we see more of the rings by means of shape around the disc, and will see even more of the next couple of years, viewing the planet's pole and higher-value latitudes.  Also, since the planet is only weeks post-conjunction, the rings are not reflecting much Sun yet.  As it approaches western quadrature and eventually opposition next spring, the we will see the rings seeming brighter, with the planet being closer to us, and Sun reflecting all of the ring portion that we see, coming back to our eyes.  The closer to conjunction that Saturn is, the less Sunlight that we see from the rings' "backside" (further from us) reflecting from them.  If the rings are angled in a way from the Sun and Earth, we see even less Sun reflecting off of them.  With that in mind, think the opposite for seeing Saturn at its brightest, is at an opposition when (1) it is at/near perihelion and we are at/near aphelion; (2) the rings are tilted towards us as opposed to edge-on; (3) the rings are tilted towards the Sun.  The latter scenario is why it is important to view them when the planet is at opposition.