The Guwahati Planetarium will organise live telescope-viewing sessions on its premises from October 4 to October 11, between 6 pm and 7.30 pm every evening.
Besides Saturn and its celebrated rings, visitors will also be shown other interesting objects in the night sky.
The phenomenon occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and Saturn, placing the three celestial bodies in an almost straight line.
From the Earth, Saturn consequently appears on the side of the sky opposite the Sun.
It also brings Saturn to its closest point to the Earth for the year, making it appear brighter and slightly larger through a telescope.
Guwahati, Oct 3: Skywatchers will get a ringside seat to a celestial spectacle from Sunday, with Saturn arriving at its closest and brightest position of the year and the city's Planetarium lining up telescopes for an eight-day public viewing programme.
The Guwahati Planetarium will organise live telescope-viewing sessions on its premises from October 4 to October 11, between 6 pm and 7.30 pm every evening. Besides Saturn and its celebrated rings, visitors will also be shown other interesting objects in the night sky.
The timing coincides with Saturn reaching ‘opposition’ on October 4. The phenomenon occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and Saturn, placing the three celestial bodies in an almost straight line. From the Earth, Saturn consequently appears on the side of the sky opposite the Sun.
The alignment makes the planet rise in the east around sunset, remain visible through the night and set in the west around sunrise. It also brings Saturn to its closest point to the Earth for the year, making it appear brighter and slightly larger through a telescope. The next such opposition will occur after about 12-and-a-half months.
Saturn can be spotted without any equipment as a steady, pale-yellow point of light. Its spectacular rings, however, become clearly distinguishable only through a telescope. Even a small telescope can offer a striking view of the planet’s disc and ring system during opposition.
The rings are not solid structures. According to NASA, they are composed of innumerable particles of ice, ranging in size from grains of dust, and sand to boulder-sized chunks, each orbiting the planet.
The view this year is also expected to be particularly interesting as Saturn’s rings are gradually opening out again after appearing almost edge-on from the Earth in 2025. Such a ring-plane crossing occurs only once in about 13 to 15 years.
Another attraction around opposition is a temporary brightening of the rings. Known as the ‘opposition effect’, it occurs because shadows cast by the ring particles become hidden from an Earth-based observer when the Sun is positioned almost directly behind the observer.
Guwahati Planetarium Director Rituparna Thakuria said the programme would offer residents an opportunity to observe the ringed planet during one of the most favourable viewing periods of the year.
