Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Apr 4.  This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, April 4th.  The sun will rise at 7:18.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 8:13.   The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 9:43 this evening.  |  Last night Saturn passed opposition from the sun, that is Saturn was opposite the sun in the sky.  That means the earth is nearly directly between them.  Also Saturn is at its closest.  That’s not as big a deal as with Mars.  Saturn, nearly 10 times earth’s distance from the sun, will vary its distance from the earth by plus or minus 10 percent.  Not a huge amount.  With Jupiter its plus or minus 25 percent.  With Mars it’s plus or minus 75 percent.  That plus Mars’ eccentric orbit means we only have rare close approaches, every 15 or 17 years.  So Saturn appears about the same size no matter were in its orbit or our orbit we see it.  We’ll have nearly six months of Saturn viewing in the evening.  And Saturn’s the one planet you have got to see in a telescope.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Saturn as seen in April 2011. Created by Celestia.

The above image isn’t a photograph, but was created using Celestia.  This is roughly the view of Saturn we see now.  Celestia is available free.  See the link to the right.