January 6, 2005

Contact:
J. Kelly Beatty, Editor, Night Sky
855-638-5388 x148, [email protected]
Marcy McCreary, VP Mktg. & Bus. Dev.
855-638-5388 x143, [email protected]

 

Note to Editors/Producers: This release is accompanied by high-quality graphics and a video clip; see details below.

Taking a peek at Saturn through a telescope is fascinating any time, but the view will take on extra significance late next week. On the night of January 14, 2005, a European-built probe called Huygens will plunge into the dense atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, relaying pictures and other data as it parachutes to the surface.

"Anyone with a telescope can share in the excitement of Huygens's history-making descent by tracking down Saturn and Titan in the evening sky," advises Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine. By coincidence, Beatty points out, mid-January is also when Saturn comes closest to both the Sun and the Earth. Better still, right now Saturn's rings are tipped toward us by 23°, nearly the maximum possible angle.

These favorable circumstances — the best they've been in a quarter century — make the ringed planet especially bright and easy to find. On January 13th, one day before Huygens reaches Titan, Saturn and the Sun will be directly opposite each other in our sky. That means Saturn will rise in the east at sunset, stay up all night, and set in the west as the Sun rises. (In fact, the alignment on January 13th is so perfect that, as seen from Saturn, Earth will appear to cross the Sun's face.)

Right now Saturn is easy to spot on any clear evening, and it will remain near its peak brightness for many weeks. To find it, look southeast in early evening for the distinctive hourglass shape of the constellation Orion. Saturn is the brightest "star" in the region of sky off to Orion's left in the east. It's about the width of two wide-open hands (seen at arm's length) from the vertical row of three stars in Orion's Belt.

Even though Saturn is currently 750 million miles (1.2 billion kilometers) from Earth, its round disk and rings will be apparent when seen through even the smallest telescope. Saturn is tipped so that we are viewing its southern hemisphere, and a telescope with a diameter of at least 4 inches should reveal a black, razor-thin band (the Cassini Division) splitting the rings in two. You'll see more detail if you wait until late evening, when the planet is higher up in the sky.

Titan, with a diameter of 3,200 miles (5,150 km), is larger than either Mercury or Pluto. It circles Saturn every 16 days, traveling in an orbit about 760,000 miles (1.2 million km) from the planet. Titan looks like a a faint but distinct "star" hovering near Saturn, and on the night of January 14th it will be situated about two ring diameters away.

For a more complete guide to viewing Saturn, please link to Sky & Telescope's online guide to observing Saturn.


Sky & Telescope is pleased to make the following photographs, illustrations, and video clip available to the news media. Permission is granted for one-time, nonexclusive use in print and broadcast media, as long as appropriate credits (as noted in each caption) are included. Web publication must include a link to SkyandTelescope.com.

Where to Find Saturn

The ringed planet Saturn is easy to find on January evenings in 2005. Just look east (opposite where sunset occurred), locate the constellation Orion, then look for the brightest "star" to its left. It's not a star at all — it's Saturn! Click on the image to download a high-resolution version (152-kilobyte JPEG) by anonymous FTP. This graphic is also available with a flat horizon, which might be more suitable for broadcast use (see below).

Sky & Telescope illustration by Steven A. Simpson.

Where to Find Saturn

The ringed planet Saturn is easy to find on January evenings in 2005. Just look east (opposite where sunset occurred), locate the constellation Orion, then look for the brightest "star" to its left. It's not a star at all — it's Saturn! Click on the image to download a high-resolution version (128-kilobyte JPEG) by anonymous FTP. This graphic is also available with buildings and trees on the horizon, which might be more suitable for print and Web use (see above).

Sky & Telescope illustration by Steven A. Simpson.

Saturn

Saturn as seen in a 5-inch telescope under excellent skies. Astrophotographer Sean Walker used a ToUCam Pro webcam on the evening of March 30, 2004, to capture this view, which is an average of 443 video frames. Click on the image to call up a higher-resolution version (640 x 480 pixels). Also available for use in broadcast media is a short clip of the original video (11.9-megabyte QuickTime movie) from which this image was assembled.

Sky & Telescope photo/video by Sean Walker.

Saturn

Acquired in November 2000 by the Hubble Space Telescope, this image shows Saturn and its rings in all their glory. South is up to match the view in an astronomical (inverting) telescope. Under good conditions, a backyard telescope can reveal two major rings (outer A and inner B) and the dark Cassini Division separating them. The wide, bright band girding Saturn's middle is called the Equatorial Zone. Click on the image for a larger, unlabeled view.

Courtesy NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team.

Sky Publishing Corp. was founded in 1941 by Charles A. Federer Jr. and Helen Spence Federer, the original editors of Sky & Telescope magazine. The company's headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In addition to Sky & Telescope and SkyandTelescope.com, the company publishes Night Sky magazine (a bimonthly for beginners with a Web site at NightSkyMag.com), two annuals (Beautiful Universe and SkyWatch), as well as books, star atlases, posters, prints, globes, and other fine astronomy products.

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