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Sunday, May 22, 2016

SATURN PLANET - Saturn Dances with the Moon Sunday Night: How to See It

Saturn Dances with the Moon Sunday Night: How to See It:

Saturn Dances with the Moon Tonight: How to See It

Astrophotographer Andrew Kwon captured this photo of Saturn at opposition in May 2014 from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Credit: Andrew Kwon

While the celestial object of the moment is no doubt Mars, thanks to its closest approach to Earth in more than 10 years, on May 30, another planet will be attracting its own share of admirers in the coming weeks.

As summer kicks into gear, the top target of star parties and balmy outdoor astronomy gatherings will almost certainly be Saturn, the "Lord of the Rings."

Even seasoned veterans with many years of skywatching under their belts still experience a surge of excitement when they gaze at Saturn and its incredible system of rings; it's the most spectacular planet in the solar system. I always love showing Saturn to people, especially kids, who have never before seen it through a telescope. [Photos: The Rings and Moons of Saturn]

Talk about a "wow!" moment.

Saturn's famous rings are believed to be composed primarily of countless billions of icy particles that range from as large as boulders all the way down to tiny crystals.

Saturn will be visible near the moon in the southeastern sky late at night on Sunday, May 21, 2016. This Starry Night sky map shows how the moon and Saturn (as well as Mars) will look at 11 p.m. local time.

Credit: Starry Night Software

Summer favors Saturn

From now through 2023, Saturn will be at its best during the summertime.

And the planet's famous ring system has been "opening up" each year since the rings were turned edge-on to Earth in 2009; they'll continue to tip more and more toward Earth until they reach their maximum inclination late next year. But if you point your telescope toward Saturn even now, you will be rewarded with a truly gorgeous sight.

Saturn currently forms an eye-catching triangle with Mars and the ruddy, first-magnitude star Antares. Interestingly, in a telescope, Saturn appears to be virtually the same size as Mars. But the surface of Saturn is much dimmer, because the ringed world is seven times farther away than the Red Planet.

Saturn is becoming more prominent as the date of its opposition to the sun, June 3, looms closer. (A planet is at opposition when it and the sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth from each other.) Saturn now appears to the unaided eye as a very bright (magnitude 0.1) yellowish-white "star" shining with a steady, sedate glow. It rises above the east-southeast horizon just before 9 p.m. local daylight time and stands due south by around 1:45 a.m. the following morning.

In fact, Saturn would rank as the eighth-brightest star, between Rigel in the constellation Orion and Procyon in Canis Minor.

See Saturn Sunday

Here's a great way to make a positive identification of Saturn: Late on Sunday evening (May 22), you will find the ringed planet positioned 4 degrees to the right of the nearly full moon. (Your clenched fist held at arm's length measures approximately 10 degrees).

A telescope magnifying 30-power or more will readily reveal the famous ring system, whose northern face is now tilted 26 degrees to our line of sight. For really superb views, try a 4-inch (10 centimeters) telescope at 100-power or an 8-inch (20 cm) telescope at 200-power. Or, for a really jaw-dropping view, use a 12-inch (30 cm) telescope at 300-power.

Remember that the apparent proximity of Saturn to the moon is just an illusion of perspective. On Sunday, the moon will be about 249,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth, while Saturn is more than 3,370 times farther away, at a distance of 840 million miles (1.35 billion km).

A final note: Should unsettled weather hide Sunday's Saturn-moon pairing, the two bodies will have another get-together less than a month from now, on June 18.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Saturn or any other night-sky sight and would like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, send images and comments to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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NASA Photos Photography

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

UFO SIGHTINGS PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'." The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. The acronym "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short." Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying discs", "unidentifiable object", and "flying saucer". The phrase "flying saucer" had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he described the objects' shape as being somewhat disc-like or saucer-like, leading to newspaper accounts of "flying saucers" and "flying discs". In popular usage the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft. and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some investigators prefer to use such terms as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP) or anomalous phenomena, as in the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).

UFO PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

UFO - Unidentified Flying Object An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of visitation by extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories, and have become popular subjects in fiction. While UFOs are often later identified, sometimes identification may not be possible owing to the usually low quality of evidence related to UFO sightings (generally anecdotal evidence and eyewitness accounts). Stories of fantastical celestial apparitions have been told since antiquity, but the term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was officially created in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and/or "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2). During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs". The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security. Various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).