How to find Saturn in the Sky this Weekend

If you want to find the planet Saturn in the sky this weekend, but aren’t sure where to look, this guide should help you.

Saturn is visible all night long at the moment and is quite easy to find, as it is just past opposition which makes it quite bright.

Credit: Adrian West

Find the constellation of Leo the Lion (high in the Southern sky at around 10pm) by looking for the backwards question mark asterism (red in the diagram), which is the head of Leo. Find the last 2 stars in Leo’s body and draw an imaginary line through these 2 stars, and arc to the left and down until you reach a bright yellowish star. This is Saturn.

If you continue drawing this imaginary line a little further you will find the bright bluish white star Spica, in the constellation of Virgo.

Right now, Saturn should be an easy target to spot with the naked eye, but looks great through binoculars and is truly amazing through any telescope.

VirtualAstro

Astronomer, writer and much much more. The best Astronomy, Space info on twitter. Making Stargazing easy, fun and enjoyable for all. Creator of Meteorwatch, meteorwatch.org and virtualastro.org

Recent Posts

Astronomers Will Get Gravitational Wave Alerts Within 30 Seconds

Any event in the cosmos generates gravitational waves, the bigger the event, the more disturbance.…

11 hours ago

Next Generation Ion Engines Will Be Extremely Powerful

During the Space Race, scientists in both the United States and the Soviet Union investigated…

15 hours ago

Neutron Stars Could be Capturing Primordial Black Holes

The Milky Way has a missing pulsar problem in its core. Astronomers have tried to…

15 hours ago

Japan’s Lunar Lander Survives its Third Lunar Night

Space travel and exploration was never going to be easy. Failures are sadly all too…

21 hours ago

Black Holes Can Halt Star Formation in Massive Galaxies

It’s difficult to actually visualise a universe that is changing. Things tend to happen at…

1 day ago

Mapping the Milky Way’s Magnetic Field in 3D

We are all very familiar with the concept of the Earth’s magnetic field. It turns…

2 days ago