© NASA/Cassini

Saturn at solar conjunction

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Outer Planets feed

Objects: Saturn
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The sky at

Saturn will pass close to the Sun in the sky as its orbit carries it around the far side of the solar system from the Earth.

At closest approach, Saturn will appear at a separation of only 1°38' from the Sun, making it totally unobservable for several weeks while it is lost in the Sun's glare.

At around the same time, Saturn will also be at its most distant from the Earth – receding to a distance of 10.99 AU – since the two planets will lie on opposite sides of the solar system.

If Saturn could be observed at this time, it would appear at its smallest and faintest on account of its large distance. It would measure 15.1 arcsec in diameter.

Saturn
Saturn at opposition
Saturn
Saturn at solar conjunction

A comparison of the size of Saturn as seen at opposition and at solar conjunction.

Over following weeks and months, Saturn will re-emerge to the west of the Sun, gradually becoming visible for ever-longer periods in the pre-dawn sky. After around six months, it will reach opposition, when it will be visible for virtually the whole night. A chart of the path of Saturn across the sky in 2015 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.

The position of Saturn at the moment it passes solar conjunction will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Saturn 16h22m40s 19°54'S Scorpius 15.1"
Sun 16h21m 21°30'S Scorpius 32'25"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 19 Mar 2024

The sky on 19 March 2024
Sunrise
07:36
Sunset
19:44
Twilight ends
21:12
Twilight begins
06:09

9-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

75%

9 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:14 14:41 21:07
Venus 06:53 12:28 18:03
Moon 14:32 22:11 05:41
Mars 06:21 11:42 17:02
Jupiter 09:40 16:31 23:22
Saturn 07:01 12:38 18:14
All times shown in MDT.

Warning

Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

01 Aug 2015  –  Saturn ends retrograde motion
25 Mar 2016  –  Saturn enters retrograde motion
03 Jun 2016  –  Saturn at opposition
13 Aug 2016  –  Saturn ends retrograde motion

Image credit

© NASA/Cassini

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37.13°N
113.51°W
MDT

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