dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (09/27/84)
Early Thursday evening, you can see Saturn near the moon. More -- right after this. September 27 Saturn and the Moon That bright object near the moon in Thursday evening's sky is a planet -- the famous planet of the rings -- Saturn. Saturn's rings aren't visible without a telescope. But it's fun to look at the planet in Earth's sky -- and think about seeing the rings close-up. The rings of Saturn are hundreds of thousands of miles wide -- but less than a mile thick. Where Saturn is in a place in its orbit that the rings appear edge-on from Earth, we can't see them at all. That situation last took place around 1980, when for some months, Saturn's rings seemed to disappear. Likewise, if you traveled in a spacecraft to Saturn -- probably, like the Voyager spacecraft, taking years to make the trip -- you'd zip past the ring thickness in less than a single second! But if you could slow your spacecraft down, and maneuver above the rings, you'd see that thousands of separate icy moonlets make up the rings of Saturn. From a vantagepoint just above the rings, you'd see these little moons marching in formation around Saturn. They'd be so densely packed in some places, they'd block the sun's light. The view of the rings from Saturn itself would be equally spectacular. Saturn has a thick atmosphere -- so you'd have to locate yourself at the cloudtops to see the rings. From there the rings would arc across the sky -- a bridge of moonlets shining in the light of the sun. Once again, you need a telescope to see Saturn's rings from Earth. But the planet is conspicuous in our sky Thursday evening as the brightest starlike object near the moon. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin