[AZ-Observing] Saturn and Porrima
- From: Michael Collins <cal_donley@xxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:39:00 -0700
For the past several weeks, Saturn and Porrima (gamma Virginis) have
formed an increasingly tighter naked eye double "star" in the southern
sky. Saturn's approach to Porrima reaches it's minimum distance early
tomorrow morning, and for the 24 hour period starting about 9:00 p.m.
MST tonight, the two objects will appear to be within 15-1/2 arc-minutes
of each other. I took a look last night through the telescope. To me,
the best view was at about 100 power with a 30 arc-minute field. At that
magnification, it was possible to split Porrima, while still getting a
good look at Saturn, Titan and two satellites to the east of the planet.
I could fit both the planet and the star in the field of some of my
higher-power eyepieces, but to my eye the view wasn't as pleasing.
Saturn next passes Porrima in September, 2040. It will be an
impressive grouping, with Venus, Mars and Jupiter all nearby, however
the elongation will be only 30 degrees from the Sun. When Saturn makes
its retrograde loop following that opposition, it will come only to
within about 7 degrees of Porrima. Your best view of this particular
star-planet combination may well come tonight. If the seeing is as good
as it was last night down my way, it's a look worth taking.
-- Mike --
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cal_donley@xxxxxxx
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