Tonight is your best chance to see Saturn's rings in the night sky
Tuesday night will be the best time to see Saturn in the night sky, even without a telescope.
The planet will be in opposition for the evening, which is the point in its orbit where it's closest to the Earth. If the skies are clear, you may be able to get a good glimpse of it just by looking up to the southern sky, AccuWeather reports — but for a detailed view of the planet, its rings, and maybe even a few of its brighter moons, a telescope will be necessary.
Saturn will be in the sky from sunset to sunrise, rising in the southeast and setting in the southwest. As one of the brightest things in the sky, it shouldn't be very hard to spot, even if you aren't very practiced with a telescope. To get the best view, you should find some high ground and aim your telescope to the south. Clear skies will make for the best viewing, which unfortunately means that rain or clouds might impede your view.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But if you don't have a great view this time around, Saturn will still be fairly bright and close to the Earth for the rest of July. So even if you can't see it with the naked eye, with a telescope you should still have no trouble taking a good look at the ringed planet.
Read more at AccuWeather.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Shivani is the editorial assistant at TheWeek.com and has previously written for StreetEasy and Mic.com. A graduate of the physics and journalism departments at NYU, Shivani currently lives in Brooklyn and spends free time cooking, watching TV, and taking too many selfies.
-
6 charming homes for the whimsical
Feature Featuring a 1924 factory-turned-loft in San Francisco and a home with custom murals in Yucca Valley
By The Week Staff Published
-
Big tech's big pivot
Opinion How Silicon Valley's corporate titans learned to love Trump
By Theunis Bates Published
-
Stacy Horn's 6 favorite works that explore the spectrum of evil
Feature The author recommends works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Anthony Doerr, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Blue Origin conducts 1st test flight of massive rocket
Speed Read The Jeff Bezos-founded space company conducted a mostly successful test flight of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials say
Speed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was right
Speed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular stories
Speed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
A giant meteor did double duty on Earth billions of years ago
Under the Radar Nutrients from the impact led to a "fertilizer bomb"
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an ocean
Speed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mind
Speed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Earth may be gaining a temporary moon
Under the radar A planetary plus-one
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published