Big beautiful Saturn, complete with its astonishing set of rings. The Cassini Division is the black radial where astronomers believe a moon has cleared out the icy debris via its gravity. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL Cassini Imaging Team.
ByANDY FLEMING
If there is one celestial
object that is both readily visible in even the worst light polluted skies, and yet
full of the astronomical “wow” factor, it has to be Saturn, our solar system’s
beautiful ringed gas giant planet.
For anyone new to
telescopic observing, Saturn is usually an early and easy target. The
planet has fascinated me for a long time, revealing an interesting bright disk
when viewed through my 10x50 binoculars, but definite and tantalising “handles” or
“ears” when viewed with some old 12x50s - very much in accordance with Galileo’s
findings in the early seventeenth century. It yearns for greater magnification.
Saturn is like an old
friend to me, both often gracing our skies and never failing to impress when other
planets, like Mars, often fail. Having had an hour observing the Moon, I simply couldn’t
wait any longer to observe Saturn with my 200mm Dobsonian. Like most people, when I first observed Saturn I was unprepared for
the awesome views of the planet as revealed through a large, quality
telescope with a sturdy mount.
