ONE of my favourite stargazing memories is the first time I viewed the rings of Saturn through a telescope. The planet, with its iconic shape, came into focus before my eyes, and I was looking at it in real time.
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| NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC)/OPAL Team |
In reality, what I was seeing was just over an hour in the past, as light from Saturn takes over an hour to reach us on Earth.
This was a few years ago, but even to this day I feel a sense of awe when looking at the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn through binoculars or a telescope.
People frequently ask me what size of telescope you need to see the rings of Saturn. We are often advised that you are able to see them through any small telescope, or even binoculars. But you really need a telescope with at least 40 times magnification to clearly see the detail of the rings as separate from the planet. And the bigger the telescope, the better.
You probably won’t have any luck with binoculars. The best you can hope for is to see that Saturn is a disc, with something unusual at either side. There are plenty of other wonders you can see with binoculars however, like the moons of Jupiter.
You don’t need any equipment to see Saturn itself though. The gas giant has been gradually making more of an appearance in our night skies for the past few months, and in mid-August it will rise in the east as soon as the sun has set, regardless of where you are in the world. A few hours later, it will be followed by Jupiter.
To find Saturn, look east just after sunset, and you will spot a bright “star”. Look closely and you will see it isn’t flickering. Use a free stargazing app to make sure you know exactly where Saturn is from your part of the world, because it will change over time.
Once you have found the planet, point your telescope in its direction and focus it. You might be tempted to magnify your telescope as much as possible with your choice of eyepiece, but try to resist this urge – too much magnification will just increase the distortion caused by light bending on its way through our atmosphere, making the image appear blurry.
Through smaller telescopes, Saturn’s rings will appear as a cream-coloured fuzzy line coming out from a central yellowy blob. With larger telescopes, you might be able to make out the black band of the Cassini Division, the gap between the A and B rings.
Whatever you can see, enjoy the experience. I think that Saturn through a telescope looks almost cartoon-like, and some say it is the most three-dimensional-looking object you can view in the night sky, because of the shadow the rings cast on the planet’s surface.
While you are gazing at Saturn, take a look nearby and you will probably spot Titan, and perhaps some of the planet’s other moons too.
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