Saturn at close opposition
Back
(31st December 2003)
By Salvador J. Ribas
On 31st December 2003,
Saturn will be directly on the opposite side of
Earth from the
Sun. This situation means that
Saturn will rise as the
Sun sets, reaching its highest point in the southern sky at midnight and setting as the
Sun rises. This phenomenon is what we commonly call opposition.
Saturn will be, in this particular case, at the closest position for three decades.
Saturn as seen by
Cassini-Huygens spacecraft (10th December 2003)
(Courtesy of
NASA,
JPL and Caltech)
Saturn spends 29.42 years travelling around the
Sun, following a slightly elliptical
orbit, which drove it to be at its
perihelion (the closest position to the
Sun) last 26th July. The close coincidence of
perihelion and opposition dictates that on New Year's Eve,
Saturn will be closer to
Earth than at any time since December 1973. The ringed planet will be 1.2 billion
km from the
Earth. It will not be so close until January of 2034.
Stellar Map produced by Salvador Ribas using The Sky Software & Corel Photo-Paint.
There's a bonus.
Saturn's rings are not always well tilted for viewing. Sometimes they are edge on, as seen from the
Earth, and unimpressive. Right now, the rings are still dramatically tipped -- more than 25º to our line of sight. This makes possible to see the planet in all its glory, and it also stresses
Saturn’s brightness.
By the end of December,
Saturn will be shining as bright as it can ever get, at a
magnitude of –0.5 (-0.9 at opposition). Among the stars, only
Sirius and
Canopus will be brighter.
Stellar Map produced by Salvador Ribas using The Sky Software & Corel Photo-Paint.
The
ringed planet is easy to find right now. It is currently in the constellation of
Gemini, the Twins.
Saturn is found between the legs of the twins.
Part of the information comes from
space.com and
NASA.
Images from net surfers:
Send us your photographs to the mail
serviastro@am.ub.es!!!
We will post them on this page so that everybody can contemplate them.
The samples we have received at the moment are the following:
Images obtained with webcam at Alella's Observatory.
Processing: Xavier Redón (
AAA) with the software Registax.
Date/Place: 30th December 2003, Alella (Barcelona).
Images obtained with a
CCD 
ST6 with
Johnson's filters V and B at Alella's Observatory, with some clouds.
Date/Place: 30th December 2003, Alella (Barcelona)
Image obtained with a
CCD 
Pixcel 237 with
Johnson's filters BVR at Alella's Observatory.
Processing: Salvador Ribas with the program Iris.
Date/Place: 21st January 2004, Alella (Barcelona)
Images obtained with a Sony digital camera from Alella's Observatory.
Date/Place: 31st December 2003, Alella (Barcelona).
Jesús Miguel Ríos Palacios
Image obtained with webcam in a 8
" telescope from Huetor Vega (Granada) and Sierra Nevada, respectively.
Processing: Jesús Ríos with the software Registax and Photoshop 6.
The agressive processing with Photoshop implies the introduction of some unreal colours but makes possible to observe some details which would be invisible in any other way.
Date/Place: 6th and 12th January 2004, Huetor Vega and Sierra Nevada
Image obtained with webcam from the Observatory of Alella.
Processing: Albert Ferrer (
AAA) with the software Registax.
Date/Place: 7th January 2004, Alella (Barcelona)
Juan Carlos Casado
Image obtained with webcam using the 50
cm telescope property of the
University of Mons , placed at the
Observatorio del Teide of the
IAC 
Date/Place: 7th November 2003
Back