The planet Saturn will reach opposition on Monday July 20, 2020. On that date if you were to draw a line between the Sun and the earth and then extend it outward it would pass close to Saturn. In the evening sky Saturn will be rising in the east at sunset. As soon as the sky darkens it will be high enough in the sky to be seen above the eastern mountains.
It will be easy to spot Saturn on Monday July 20th as brilliant Jupiter shines brightly not far to the right of Saturn. These two planets are gradually drawing closer together and will pass within one tenth of a degree of each other on evening of December 21st of this year. At that time both planets will be visible in the same field of view of a telescope. To the eye they will be so close that they will almost appear as a single star.
Saturn is the sixth planet from our sun. On the night of opposition it will be about 75 light minutes from the earth. A light minute is the distance that light travels in sixty seconds. Saturn is best known for its splendid rings. Even a small telescope will show the rings around Saturn. In a large telescope the rings are a truly spectacular sight and divisions in the rings can be observed when the air is steady.
Our website is CVAS-utahskies.org.
