Saturn in the Milky Way
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Mohammad Nouroozi
Saturn
is near opposition in planet Earth's sky.
Rising at sunset and shining brightly throughout the night,
it also lies near a line-of-sight to crowded starfields, nebulae,
and obscuring dust clouds
along the Milky Way.
Whitish Saturn is up and left of center in this gorgeous
central Milky Way skyscape, a two panel mosaic recorded
earlier this month.
You can find
the bright planet above the bowl of the dusty
Pipe nebula,
and just beyond the end of a
dark river to Antares,
alpha star of the constellation Scorpius.
For now the best views
of the ringed giant planet are from
the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft, though.
Diving close,
Cassini's Grand Finale orbit number 8
is in progress.