Thursday June 15th the outer planet Saturn reaches its orbital position known as opposition. This is a position which has the faster moving Earth passing Saturn and at opposition is centered between the outer planet and the Sun. Picture the arrangement with the Moon at full phase; Sun – Earth – Moon, and that is similar to the arrangement for Saturn at opposition.
When an outer planet, like Saturn, reaches opposition that planet rises around local time for sunset and is visible all night.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.