Scheduled air date: 2002 Feb 25-Mar 03
Although it has been a few months since the planet Saturn was at opposition—directly
opposite the Sun as viewed from Earth—because it is high in the sky after dark
and its rings are presently "wide open," it is still appearing at its
best since the 1970's.
(The image at left represents an over-head view of our Solar System at the end
of February. The positions of Earth and Saturn are also shown for Saturn's
opposition last December.)
Looking high in the south-southwestern sky shortly after dark, the planet Saturn
appears in the constellation Taurus, to the upper-right of the constellation
Orion. The planets Jupiter and Mars can also be seen.
(Shown about an hour after sunset for mid-Northern latitudes.)
If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.
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Illustrations on this page were created using
TheSky Astronomy
Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows. Copyright © 1999-2006 by Software Bisque, Inc. |