|photo credit: Elsie esq.| Saturn is now in the south southeast
at dusk. We are seeing its rings a little more edge on than
earlier in the year. In fact, Saturn’s rings won’t be this edge-
on to us for another 15 years. Saturn, like Earth, is tilted on
its axis (at 26.7 degrees, Saturn’s tilt is a little greater
than Earth’s). Twice per Saturn orbit, then, about every 15
years, Saturn has equinoxes where the sun is aligned with
Saturn’s equator. Since the rings orbit the equator, this puts
the sun (and the Earth) in Saturn’s ring plane. Earth was
exactly in Saturn’s ring plane on September 3, 2009 when Saturn
was also on the far side of the sun and hard for us to see. This
month, Earth again approaches (but will not cross) Saturn’s ring
plane. That’s why the rings appear so thin in telescopes now.
Learn more about the rings of Saturn in my latest blog post.
Venus keeps getting higher in the evening sky during May. Face
west at dusk and look for a point of light that outshines
everything in the sky but the sun