Saturn Reaches Opposition on April 28

By Nancy Atkinson - April 28, 2013 at 3:06 PM UTC | Planetary Science

Saturn is one of the most striking objects to see through a telescope, and it is now at its brightest in the night sky as it reaches opposition from the Sun. This is when Earth stands mostly perfectly in line between Saturn and the Sun. It is when Saturn is brightest (at magnitude +0.3), closely approximating famous "first magnitude" stars like Betelgeuse. Also, it is when Saturn is out all night long.

Slooh Space Camera will broadcast a free, real-time feed of Saturn at opposition, with the giant planet's rings impressively angled -- its best in six years. Slooh's coverage will begin on Sunday, April 28th, starting at 6:30 p.m. PDT / 9:30 p.m. EDT / 01:30 UTC (April 29th), with observatory feeds from their world-class observatory site in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. Viewers can watch live on their PC/Mac at

Slooh.com,

or by downloading the free Slooh iPad app in the

iTunes

store and touching the broadcast icon.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com