Saturn
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For me in the Netherlands, Saturn is about to reach opposition in about 15 minutes and it's a crisp, clear night so good viewing conditions.
Opposition means that the Sun, Earth, and planet in question all line up (a gorgeous word for this is syzygy) so it's generally the closest and brightest we ever get to see it.
Easy to find this time. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the brightest thing in the southern sky at the moment is Jupiter, low in the sky and pretty well due south at midnight. Saturn is the not-quite-as-bright golden 'star' just a little to the left.
Way over to the left at the same time is Mars rising in the East.
Off to have a look!
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I have a moon rising about 4:49 am, which soon transitions into a meatier shower to hydrate the aperture so noted, radiating from the thin layer of silver spayed onto a sheet of glass (otherwise know a mirror) mounted on an adjacent body (the sink).
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Clearly, heavenly bodies abound!
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I bought a fairly inexpensive telescope years ago, and looking at the rings of Saturn through it for the first time was quite a thrill. Same goes for the major features on Jupiter and its moons.
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Seriously Seth and Dale, I am so envious of the both of you to have the amazing equipment to view these planets. How thrilling it must be to see the details of what I can only see as a speck of light!
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@Dr-GO my viewing equipment is a pair of contact lenses!
Jupiter's just about to set (4:30 CEST here) in the West and Venus is just rising above the dawn horizon, so they're all in a line: Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter.
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@Seth-of-Lagos said in Saturn:
@Dr-GO my viewing equipment is a pair of contact lenses!
Jupiter's just about to set (4:30 CEST here) in the West and Venus is just rising above the dawn horizon, so they're all in a line: Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter.
Well, to our perspective, they’re always in a line (the ecliptic), but not always close together.
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@Dale-Proctor said in Saturn:
@Seth-of-Lagos said in Saturn:
@Dr-GO my viewing equipment is a pair of contact lenses!
Jupiter's just about to set (4:30 CEST here) in the West and Venus is just rising above the dawn horizon, so they're all in a line: Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter.
Well, to our perspective, they’re always in a line (the ecliptic), but not always close together.
True. But don't forget, I'm used to the ecliptic being overhead so it's all a bit novel for me.
The same view from our South facing balcony in Lagos before we left in February was the line up of Fomalhaut, Achernar and Canopus.
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We've got 10/10 cloud cover here...
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@Seth-of-Lagos said in Saturn:
@Dr-GO my viewing equipment is a pair of contact lenses!Jupiter's just about to set (4:30 CEST here) in the West and Venus is just rising above the dawn horizon, so they're all in a line: Venus, etc.
Ah yes, Venus.
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Entirely coincidentally, I was doing a quick shop yesterday and spotted a type of flattened peach I don't recall seeing before. Googled it this morning, and apparently it's called a Saturn peach.
So I have the next rung on life's ambitions: to watch Saturn while eating a Saturn peach on a Satur(n)day.
Shouldn't have too much difficulty finding the appropriate saturnine expression. That comes naturally.
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@Seth-of-Lagos This type of peach is called a "vineyard peach" here in Austria, and is a much sought-after commodity.
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There's no way I can see them, but I thought I'd check the current positions of the outer planets out of curiosity using https://theskylive.com/planetarium.
Turns out that Uranus and Neptune are a tad East and West of Mars respectively, and even Pluto is out there nestling between Saturn and Jupiter.
So when Mercury rises around 4:30 am, all eight of them are going to be in the night sky at once, which is a pretty rare event.
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I heard a story of a crocodile that lived in the Berlin Zoo during the Nazi Germany era. After the end of the war, somehow the Soviets ended up with the animal, which only recently died. It was considered the last "German POW."
The crocodile's name? Saturn. True story.
