[Vision2020] What's That Next To The Moon?

[J Ford]

Article on CNN Science:

Watching the full Moon rise over the east-northeast horizon, you will 
probably notice a rather bright yellowish-white “star” shining sedately just 
above and to the Moon’s right. That object is not a star, however, but the 
planet Saturn.

Currently, Saturn is at its best for 2007. It can be found to the west 
(right) of the famous “Sickle” of Leo—a backwards question mark-shaped star 
pattern, which contains Leo’s brightest star, Regulus, at the Sickle’s base. 
On Feb. 10, Saturn will be at opposition to the Sun, meaning it will be 
rising at sunset, reaches its highest point in the southern sky at midnight 
then drops down below the west-northwest horizon at sunrise. In other words, 
it’s now available for viewing all night long.

Galileo's Footsteps

Saturn is the telescopic showpiece of the night sky, thanks to its great 
ring system in all of their icy, glimmering elegance. In small telescopes, 
they surprise even veteran observers with their chilling beauty even though 
it is expected. Certainly they will delight anyone this winter who received 
a telescope as a holiday gift. Any telescope magnifying more than 30-power 
will show them.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the first to view the rings in 1610 although 
what he saw through his crude telescope left him completely baffled; his 
crude, imperfect “optick tube” revealed Saturn as having an odd pair of 
appendages or companion bodies on either side. He couldn’t make them out 
clearly and thought that Saturn was a triple body, two small orbs on either 
side of a large one.

Galileo announced this discovery in 1610 with an anagram written in Latin. 
The jumbled letters could be transposed to read: Altissimum planetam 
tergeminum observavi (“I have observed the highest planet to be triple.”) 
Later, when the rings turned edgewise to Earth and the two companions 
disappeared, Galileo invoked an ancient myth when he wrote, “Has Saturn 
swallowed his children?” Galileo lamented that his mind was too weak to 
comprehend this strange phenomenon.

Actually, it was his telescope that was too weak; a better telescope would 
have revealed Saturn’s companions as rings. It wasn’t until nearly a half 
century later that telescope lenses improved to the point where the ringlike 
nature of these “appendages” became apparent. On March 25, 1655, a young 
Dutch mathematician, Christian Huygens (1629-1695) utilized a much better 
telescope, and on March 25, 1655 saw the rings for what they really were.

Today, we know they are composed of a myriad of small solid particles and 
are likely the icy fragments of a satellite that probably ventured too close 
to Saturn and was torn apart by tidal forces.

The ancients regarded Saturn as the “highest” planet, occupying the 
outermost or highest sphere before that of the fixed stars. Since Saturn 
requires 29.5 years to orbit the Sun, its progress through the zodiacal 
constellations is quite slow, averaging about 2.5 years per constellation. 
The last time this planet was located in Leo was in 1979.

In mythology, Saturn closely resembled the Greek god Cronus, but he’s more 
usually recognized as the Roman god of agriculture. The name is related to 
both the noun satus (seed corn) and the verb serere (to sow).

But why would the planet Saturn be linked to agriculture? Perhaps a clue can 
be found from the ancient Assyrians who referred to Saturn as lubadsagush, 
which translated, meant “oldest of the old sheep.” Possibly this name was 
applied because Saturn seems to move so very slowly among the stars; it may 
have also reminded sky watchers of the slow gait of plowing oxen or cattle.





J  :]

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