Actual Astronomy - Saturn At Opposition

<p class="p1">Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan.</p> <p class="p1">Welcome to Episode 248 of the Actual Astronomy Podcast<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> a short episode on Saturn ‘s Opposition. <span class= "Apple-converted-space"> </span></p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1"><strong>Opposition?</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li1">- On August 14th Saturn will be at opposition.</li> <li class="li1">- What is opposition?</li> <li class="li1">- When a planet or other body is opposite the sun in the sky.</li> <li class="li1">- SO it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise.</li> <li class="li1">- Typically this marks the time when most people will begin looking at the planet since after this date it is more and more into the evening sky when people are more likely to be observing instead of having to wait past midnight for it to get high enough to observe.<span class= "Apple-converted-space"> </span></li> <li class="li1">- Also this year before now in the northern hemisphere you would be staying up pretty late.</li> <li class="li2"> </li> <li class="li1">Seeing Saturn to the first time seems fake :) A couple weeks ago I was showing the public Saturn through my telescope when I had it set up in GNP.</li> <li class="li2"> </li> <li class="li1"><strong>How to observe:</strong></li> </ul> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li1">- Do you need a telescope just to ID Saturn? Nope, you can see it with just your eye. A telescope is needed to see the rings.</li> <li class="li1">- What will binoculars show? Maybe a football shape and Titan from a dark sky.</li> </ul> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li1">- What will it look like in binoculars?</li> <li class="li1">- You’ll need at least ~10x to see it as an oval / football shape and for those with 15x you’ll start to get a hint of the rings but these are best seen in telescopes.</li> <li class="li1">- Binoculars can help you track it’s retrograde motion as it moves a little to the West each night and panning several degrees o