See Saturn's rings Tuesday night as it makes closest pass by Earth

upi ^ | 07/08/2019 | Brian Lada

[BenLurkin]

Cloud-free skies are expected on Tuesday night across much of the interior West, southern Plains and Northeast, leading to uninterrupted viewing.

Saturn will be above the horizon all night long, rising in the southeast around sunset and slowly gliding across the sky before setting in the southwest around dawn.

No special equipment is needed to see the planet as it is bright enough to see with the unaided eye, but a telescope is required to be able to see the planet's famous rings. These rings are made up of pieces of ice, dust and debris orbiting the planet.

Jupiter just reached opposition in June and is still bright in the sky most of the night, out-shining all of the stars and even Saturn.

Once you have located Jupiter in the southern sky, it should be easier to spot Saturn. The two planets are not right next to each other, but Saturn should be off to the left of Jupiter.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[ETL]

I took this photo from my backyard with my small cellphone camera last time Saturn made a close approach...

[Nailbiter]

That is some backyard- at least one need not mow the grass :)

[BenLurkin]

Great camera you got on that phone, dude.

[ETL]

That is some backyard- at least one need not mow the grass

That's correct. I'm fortunate to have no vegetation whatsoever on my property.

[ETL]

It’s OK. Does what I need to do.

[BobL]

Damn that’s good. I took some pictures of Jupiter a couple of weeks ago when it was close, and while the planet looked fine, even the spot being visible, something was wrong with my camera because there were several white specks that kept showing up around it. Probably dead pixels, so maybe time for a new camera?

[jmacusa]

Cool. Is that Ganymede you're living on or Callisto?

[ETL]

Here's another I took on the shore of one of my several methane ponds...

[ETL]

Those are moons of Jupiter. I’m a long way from Jupiter.

[jmacusa]

I stand corrected. You seem to know your way around that neighborhood better then me. So then are you living on Titan , Rhea, Mimas, or Dione, somewhere like that? Aside from the great view of the Big Guy there, it looks to be a pretty, ah... quiet place.

[KarlInOhio]

I took this photo from my backyard with my small cellphone camera last time Saturn made a close approach...

You must not be on Sprint. You lose coverage more than a mile from an interstate, much less one billion miles from one.

[ETL]

Here's a photo I took of where I used to live before getting an out-of-this-world great deal on the place I have now. Never thought I would miss the old place. But the loneliness here is driving me slowly insane.

[BobL]

Maybe slowly insane for you out there, but back on Earth here, Trump is driving virtually every liberal out their minds.

[Henry Cavendish]

You can see Saturn’s rings and you can play them like a harp:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180424.html

[dp0622]

Well, it’s better than posting a picture of Uranus :)

...somebody had to....

[jmacusa]

Do you get Netflix out there? Hows the internet connection? Must not be too bad. Appears you’re able to get on FR.

[ETL]

What? I didn’t quite get that... The signal is breaking up.

And also, there is a significant time delay between where you are and here. So please excuse the slow responses.

[jmacusa]

Roger that. Moon base here.... we are attempting to trace your transmission ..now. Delta, Tango XRay... Zulu.. Foxtrot...