Saturn takes the center stage

Mars has had its turn on center stage, now we give our attention to probably the best looking of all of the planets, Saturn, the ringed one.

Friday, June 3, Saturn will be at opposition, or opposite the Sun in our night sky and possibly the brightest for the year. It rises at sunset and sets at sunrise and thus will be up all night for our viewing pleasure.

For best viewing wait until at least an hour or two after local sunset for a dark sky so the viewing contrast is better. With these warm almost-summer evenings it shouldn't be too hard to wait.

At that time Saturn will be located just left of our old friend Scorpius about one-quarter of the way up the sky in the southeast. To help locate it look for Mars and Antares as two points in a nice triangle with Saturn.

Once located, for best viewing use a telescope--even a small one--to see the famous rings. When Galileo first saw them in his primitive telescope he thought the planet had ears. He didn't know about the rings.

That knowledge would come 50 years later when Christiaan Huygens -- using a better quality scope -- discovered the true nature of the rings. He also discovered Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

It is fitting I think, that when the Cassini (another astronomer who studied Saturn) space probe orbited Saturn it carried another probe called Huygens that was dropped onto the surface of Titan to explore that moon.

If you miss the June 3, opposition not to worry. The planetary pair will be in the evening sky through the middle of September.

If you are having difficulty finding the planets and can wait until June 17, when the almost-full moon will be between them and the next night -- June 18 -- it will be only three degrees to the left of Saturn. Of course, the moon's brightness will wipe out most of the planets light which means binoculars will help with the location.

The appearance of Scorpius signals the return of viewing possibilities for the center of our galaxy. It is located in the neighboring constellation of Sagittarius. It also brings many prime nebula, and star clusters.

If you swing your view to the left (east) look for our old friends Lyra, Cygnus, and Aquila, the three constellations that make up the Summer Triangle. We will be looking a little closer at them later, especially Albireo, the "beak" star of Cygnus.

For you early risers look to the east about a half-hour before local sunrise for a nice pairing of a very, very slender crescent moon and the tiny planet Mercury. Would be a good opportunity to take in some Earthshine, sunlight reflected off Earth back onto the moon.

SKY WATCH: Saturday, June 4, new moon, which really means no moon visible.

NEXT WEEK: Two early summer constellations and more astronomical blathering.