If you have rock-steady sky and a 12-inch or larger scope, look for the elusive Encke division, another gap near the outer edge of the A-ring. This is the Cassini division.Ĭan you discern the difference in brightness between the two rings? Most observers agree the outer ‘A’ ring is fainter than the inner ‘B’ ring. You’ll easily see the two main A and B rings, and in steady skies at 100x or more, you may see the large gap between the two main rings. There are the rings, of course, with their complex structure and segmentation. Saturn is one of the finest sights in a small telescope, even for beginners, and the planet reveals much to a patient observer. The planet stays in this constellation through the end of the year, slower growing fainter and more distant. Saturn early August 2021 lies opposite the Sun in the constellation Capricornus. The planet’s disk spans about 21″ (less than half the size of Jupiter) and its rings are about 42″ from tip to tip. At opposition this year, Saturn lies about 1.35 billion kilometers from Earth. At opposition, Saturn shines at magnitude +0.1, brighter than the red-supergiant star Antares, which is a magnitude fainter than Saturn, well to the west, although it is much fainter than Jupiter which also lies to its west this year.
It resumes its eastward (prograde) motion on October 11. The planet has been retrograding westward against the background stars a little each day since May 23. Like last year, Saturn reaches opposition in the southern reaches of the ecliptic this year in the constellation Capricornus (see below).
#Jupiter under telescope how to#
Here’s how to find it and see it in a small telescope. The planet reaches opposition on Augand will remain bright and large in a telescope over the next few months. It is arguably the finest sight accessible with a small telescope. And incredibly beautiful… the color, the proportions, the apparent 3D perspective of this grand icy world. More than a few have looked through my small refractor on a night of good seeing and asked of Saturn, “Is it real?” Many casual observers get hooked on amateur astronomy after a first look at Saturn through a telescope. This composite image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 6 June 2018, shows the ringed planet Saturn with six of its 62 known moons.
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