The best time to view Saturn in the early evening sky this year will be at the time of opposition during the month of May, you can also see Saturn a lot earlier than this if you’re prepared to get up in the early hours of the morning.
At opposition, Saturn will be at its brightest and closest to us here on Earth because of the perfect alignment between the Sun, Earth and Saturn that are all in line on the same side of the Sun…that's why at opposition we see Saturn rise in the eastern sky at sunset and setting in the western sky at sunrise.
As the days and weeks go by after opposition, the Earth quickly moves along in its orbit around the Sun and leaves Saturn behind…but you have plenty of time to view this beautiful planet for the next couple of months in the evening sky :-)
My first images of Saturn this year were taken in the early hours of the morning during April at my Stardust Observatory. I observed that Saturn was shinning with its bright golden light among the arc of curved stars in the crown of Scorpius, Saturn was right next to the double star (Beta) Scorpii. …Which looked quite remarkable!
At opposition, Saturn will be at its brightest and closest to us here on Earth because of the perfect alignment between the Sun, Earth and Saturn that are all in line on the same side of the Sun…that's why at opposition we see Saturn rise in the eastern sky at sunset and setting in the western sky at sunrise.
As the days and weeks go by after opposition, the Earth quickly moves along in its orbit around the Sun and leaves Saturn behind…but you have plenty of time to view this beautiful planet for the next couple of months in the evening sky :-)
My first images of Saturn this year were taken in the early hours of the morning during April at my Stardust Observatory. I observed that Saturn was shinning with its bright golden light among the arc of curved stars in the crown of Scorpius, Saturn was right next to the double star (Beta) Scorpii. …Which looked quite remarkable!
~ Saturn in the crown of Scorpius 17th April 2015 ~
~ Outline of Saturn in the crown of Scorpius 17th April 2015 ~
~ Saturn in Scorpius ~
A quick wide field image to show where Saturn was in the Head of Scorpius on the 17th April 2015, 6x20 second images taken with a Canon 700D camera and Tokina 11-16mm lens @15mm ISO3200 and the image is cropped.
The second image is marked to show the outline of Scorpius (The Scorpion)
To take the wide field images to show Saturn’s position in Scorpius, I attached my DSLR camera with a wide field lens on top of the tracking telescope and took some short exposures that I stacked together.
A quick wide field image to show where Saturn was in the Head of Scorpius on the 17th April 2015, 6x20 second images taken with a Canon 700D camera and Tokina 11-16mm lens @15mm ISO3200 and the image is cropped.
The second image is marked to show the outline of Scorpius (The Scorpion)
To take the wide field images to show Saturn’s position in Scorpius, I attached my DSLR camera with a wide field lens on top of the tracking telescope and took some short exposures that I stacked together.
~ Saturn's beautiful Rings on show in 2015 ~
Saturn’s rings are now nearly fully on show with the northern summer hemisphere on view, a perfect time to see the stunning rings of this beautiful planet in our solar system.
~ Magnificent Saturn April 2015 ~
~ Beautiful Saturn ~
Image taken 17th April 2015 through My Meade LX200 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and an Orion Deep Space Video Camera with a 2x barlow lens, avi movie stacked in RegiStack 6 and lightly processed in PS CS4.
Image taken 17th April 2015 through My Meade LX200 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and an Orion Deep Space Video Camera with a 2x barlow lens, avi movie stacked in RegiStack 6 and lightly processed in PS CS4.
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