This is the best time of year to spot Saturn in our early evening sky. Of the five "bright" planets, it is the farthest and the dimmest. It does not blaze forth, nor does it shine brightly. It appears as another bright star.
Look to the southeast about 9:30 p.m. for Saturn and another object of similar brightness, Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. In the accompanying top image, Saturn lies just to the upper left of Spica. Saturn appears a tad bit brighter than Spica. The four quadrangle stars of Corvus lie to Spica's far right. To top two stars of that quadrangle point left directly to Spica, helping to identify it.
The planet takes about 29 years to orbit the sun, and, as a result, it moves quite slowly across the celestial sphere. It takes 29 years to move through all the zodiacal constellations along the ecliptic before it returns to its starting spot.
The bottom image shows Saturn and Spica as they were on April 28, 2011. Saturn was to Spica's upper right, near the moderately bright star Porrima. In the past year, it has crawled only 1/14 across the evening's celestial dome. Next year about this date, it will have moved another 1/14 across the sky far to Spica's lower left.
Such is our view from Earth...
Look to the southeast about 9:30 p.m. for Saturn and another object of similar brightness, Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. In the accompanying top image, Saturn lies just to the upper left of Spica. Saturn appears a tad bit brighter than Spica. The four quadrangle stars of Corvus lie to Spica's far right. To top two stars of that quadrangle point left directly to Spica, helping to identify it.
The planet takes about 29 years to orbit the sun, and, as a result, it moves quite slowly across the celestial sphere. It takes 29 years to move through all the zodiacal constellations along the ecliptic before it returns to its starting spot.
The bottom image shows Saturn and Spica as they were on April 28, 2011. Saturn was to Spica's upper right, near the moderately bright star Porrima. In the past year, it has crawled only 1/14 across the evening's celestial dome. Next year about this date, it will have moved another 1/14 across the sky far to Spica's lower left.
Such is our view from Earth...
No comments:
Post a Comment