Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, August 29th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 8:25, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:02. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 6:05 tomorrow morning.

As seen in even low powered telescopes Saturn’s rings are visible. Currently, the rings are closing towards that edge on point which will they reach on March 23rd 2025 and then begin to open up again. The rings orbit Saturn’s equator, and Saturn has a nearly 27 degree inclination of its axis to its orbit, like the Earth’s 23 1/2 degrees and that means that near the equinoxes Saturn’s rings turn out to be nearly edge on to the Sun and the Earth, since we orbit much closer to the Sun than Saturn. Near the solstices on Saturn the rings are open to their widest extent. This occurs about 7 ½ years after the rings go edge on, and 7 ½ years before the next time. The next time the rings go edge on Saturn will be too close to the direction of the Sun to spot, but when they do go edge-on, they disappear. They are 150,000 miles in diameter and less than 70 feet thick.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT –4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum