Month: August 2023

Saturn Shines This Week – 3 Ways to View the Planet’s Opposition

Saturn will be located directly opposite of the Sun – at opposition – on August 26-27, 2023, as the Earth orbits between the two. From our vantage point, the Sun’s illumination will allow Saturn to appear bigger and brighter in the sky in the weeks leading up to and after the opposition. In fact, Saturn remains visible until February 2024, so don’t worry if your local weather doesn’t cooperate with your viewing plans on any particular day.

A graph that shows how far away Saturn is from the sun via concentric circles.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest planet in our solar system. Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn is not the only planet to have rings, but none are as spectacular or as complex as Saturn’s.(Credit: NASA Solar System)

Unaided Eye
Saturn is the farthest planet from Earth easily visible by the unaided human eye. It will appear on the southeastern horizon at sunset and you can spot the bright yellowish “star” all through the night until sunrise. Although you won’t be able to view any distinguishing features, like the famed icy rings without an aid, opposition is the brightest the planet will appear – pretty good for something over 800 million miles away!

The rings of Saturn in colors of Green Blue and red to depict how cold they are.
The varying temperatures of Saturn’s rings are depicted in this false-color image from the Cassini spacecraft. This image represents the most detailed look to date at the temperature of Saturn’s rings. (Credit: NASA/JPL/GSFC/Ames)

Binoculars
Viewing Saturn through binoculars will enhance its golden color and depending on your binoculars, allow you to make out a hint of the telltale rings, appearing more like “ears”. If you have dark, clear viewing conditions, you may also be able to observe Saturn’s largest moon Titan through your binoculars.

Telescope
As is true with other celestial objects, a telescope will vastly improve what and how much you are able to see. Even a small telescope will allow you to see more details of Saturn’s rings. Of all the planets that can be observed, many astronomers encourage a Saturn-viewing in everyone’s lifetime. Even a modest magnification can provide a unique experience.

Two images of Saturn with rings. The top image shows more of a beige with a tint of red with white rings and the bottom image is very yellow with yellow rings.
The top image is a view from NASA’s Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope taken on March 22, 2004. Camera exposures in four filters (blue, blue-green, green and red) were combined to form the Hubble image and render colors similar to what the eye would see through a telescope focused on Saturn. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft returned the bottom image of Saturn on May 16, 2004, when its imaging science subsystem narrow-angle camera was too close to fit the entire planet in its field-of-view. (Credit: Hubble: NASA, ESA and Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona), Cassini: NASA/JPL)

Bonus Viewing
Opposition not only makes for a slightly bigger and brighter appearing planet, but as you watch the skies over the next week, you’ll also be treated to a waxing gibbous moon leading up to the Super Blue Moon on August 30, 2023. A supermoon occurs when the Moon’s orbit is closest (perigee) to Earth at the same time the Moon is full, causing the Moon to appear slightly larger and brighter than a regular full moon. A blue moon is the second full moon in a month.

Happy skygazing!

By Lauren Perkins
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Best Meteor Shower of the Year Peaks This Weekend

The NASA All Sky Fireball Network is already detecting the first meteors of this year’s Perseid meteor shower! The meteor shower peaks on the night of August 12 as the Earth passes through the dustiest debris of comet Swift-Tuttle’s trails.

A bright white streak is in the bottom left corner on a dark grey almost black background.
On July 26, 2023, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network detected the first Perseid meteor of the year. (NASA/All Sky Fireball Network)

The Perseid meteor shower is often considered to be the best meteor shower of the year due to its high rates and pleasant late-summer temperatures. Unlike last year’s shower coinciding with the full moon, this year’s moon will be a waning crescent, allowing even some of the fainter meteors to be seen.

So, how many can you see?

“People in the U.S. can reasonably expect to see around 40 Perseids in the hour just before dawn on the peak nights. That’s about one every couple of minutes, which is not bad,” said Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “However, we are assuming you are out in the country, well away from cities and suburbs.”

The brighter skies of suburban areas greatly reduce the rates, with 10 or fewer expected in an hour.

You can see the Perseid meteor shower best in the Northern Hemisphere. All you need to catch the show is a clear sky, darkness, and a bit of patience. You don’t need to look in any particular direction; meteors can generally be seen all over the sky.

A graph shows the Perseid Radiant with time.
This diagram, based on data from the NASA Fireball Network, shows the change in the direction of the Perseid radiant with time. This is caused by Earth’s motion about the Sun, causing the radiant to appear to “drift” with respect to the background stars. (Danielle Moser, NASA Meteoroid Environment Office)

The Perseids appear to radiate from a point in the constellation Perseus, and each meteor has a similar orbit. Meteor showers take their name from the location of their point of origin, or what is known as the radiant.

A Space Shuttle being wheeled out with people standing in the foreground.
On June 1, 1993, the orbiter Discovery is shown here being rolled into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for mating with the external tank and twin solid rocket boosters. At the time, Discovery was being prepared for mission STS-51, targeted for a mid-July liftoff. (NASA/JSC)

Fun fact:
The Perseid meteor shower is the only meteor shower to delay a Space Shuttle launch. In 1993, the NASA – STS-51 launch was delayed due to concerns about the Perseid meteor shower activity being forecast to be extremely heavy, increasing the chance that a spacecraft in Earth orbit could be damaged by a piece of the debris.

By Lauren Perkins
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center