How to spot saturn in night sky?

Question

Hi.
I live in australia, and I was wondering what are some tips to finding where saturn is and what it looks like in the night sky? Im hoping to try to find saturn and view it with my telescope.
So if anyone knows the characteristics of Saturn and some tips for spotting it that would be great.
Thanks.

Answer 1

I'd have to say that the most likely place you would find saturn would be in the western sky. As you know the brightest thing in the sky is the moon. The second brightest thing is jupiter which looks like a bright star and the third brightest is saturn which also looks like a bright star.
That's the way i always used to find saturn just look for two stars that are generally brighter than the rest and the brighter one will be jupiter and the other will be saturn.

I too have a telescope and live in sydney. Looking at saturn is fantastic you can see the rings around it.

Answer 2

Oh! This is great fun to figure out. The quick and easy way would be to print up a star map-- say from http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/
or
http://www.astroviewer.com/


But I think the best way to do it is this:

Memorize the main constellations (best if you have a good atlas for this). Then go outside and spot as many as you can.

Now that you have a reference point you want to look for the brightest objects, find these bright stars and either try to identify them as parts of the constellations. If you can't find a constellation they belong to, note how far they are from the stars around them. Do their positions change, say in an hour???

If so, they are a planet.

Venus is the brightest of all the planets, and to the naked eye appears as a really big star, and appears in the scope as a bright disc.

Jupiter and Saturn are about the same size and to the naked eye look like bright stars (not necessarily the brightest in the sky, but close), but in a scope appear different-- Jupiter will have grey-scale stripes and if you are lucky moons, Saturn will have rings (and you can see these features even on a lower end telescope!).

Mars appears as a reddish-orange disc.

Another trick is to look at the night sky soon after sunset or before sunrise as the planets are often visible at sunset before the stars appear (and as such you can spot em) and at sunrise they are usually visible after the stars have dissapeared.

Of course trying to find the planets just by observing what objects are moving around the constellations takes time and energy as well as a bit of sleep deprivation, as depending on the time of year the planets will either be visible in the morning, evening, or some other time during the night.

I still suggest hunting for them yourself (with the minimal aid of knowing your constellations/star patterns) as I think it is more rewarding to do so this way. Plus you will learn your way around the night sky which is helpful when you want to search for Messier objects and other neat things. Also if you keep at it and not rely on a star map to spell out exactly where everything is in time you will be able to pinpoint the planets yourself, just by looking up.

But, again, for the quick view to the sky: a good star map is the way to go: print it up by putting in your Lat/Long and the date and time you are going to do your viewing.

Answer 3

I live in Adelaide. The easiest way to find the general position of Saturn is to look in the paper on the weather page, it has the rising and setting times of the planets. Today Saturn rises at 3:15pm and sets at 1:46am. So it will be well placed for viewing between 7 and midnight. It should be straight over head at about 8:30pm. Look for a yellow/brown point of light. This is how I usually find it.

Good luck.

Answer 4

But you can never see Saturn as well as you want! The planet is tiny as telescopic targets go; it's barely 21 arcseconds in diameter at its most favorable oppositions. Saturn's ring system is 2.25 times as wide as the ball — but that's still smaller than the width of Jupiter near opposition. And the disk itself shows only about 1/6 the area of Jupiter. Try to magnify it too much and it defies you by turning into a blurry mess. Saturn is indeed a jewel, exquisite but tiny.



Planet Saturn might will look when seen through a telescope with an aperture 4 inches (100 mm) in diameter (top) and through a larger instrument with an 8-inch aperture (bottom).
Sky & Telescope illustration; source: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope.However, with time, patience, and a top-quality 4-inch or larger telescope, you can tease out more of the planet's secrets than many observers suspect. But don't expect Hubble-like performance from your backyard telescope.

In winter and spring 2006 (Northern Hemisphere seasons), Saturn hovers within the small, dim constellation of Cancer, the Crab, in good view during evening. (Saturn passed opposition on January 27th.)

Answer 5

Look north after sunset. Saturn is presently to the west of the star Regulus in the constellation Leo. Get yourself a planetarium program like Cartes du Ciel (free) or go to www.skymaps.com and download the pdf chart for the Southern Hemisphere in April 2007 (also free).

Answer 6

I live in the southwest region of Texas, and find that Saturn occupies an area of space located high in the eastern sky, and resembles a gold colored star. It is quite different in appearence than any star, so you should have no problem in finding it.