The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : You can still catch Saturn's rings

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 01, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

You can still catch Saturn's rings

Lalithasai

They were bright, clearly visible and quite interesting to watch: planetarium visitor

CHENNAI: "Celestial events are wonderful to watch and remain etched in our memories," said R. Jayachandra Singh, head of the department of chemistry, Presidency College, who had come to the Birla Planetarium to see the Lord of the Rings, Saturn, which came "very close to Earth" (121.6 crore km away) recently.

Hundreds of people watched the ringed planet through telescopes from January 28 to 30 at the planetarium.

On January 28 by 7 p.m. the planet was seen shimmering in the eastern sky. When viewed through the telescope Saturn looked like a golden ball amidst its prominent rings.

The highlight of the event was that Titan, one of Saturn's biggest moonsand the second largest moon in the solar system, could be seen clearly with a magnitude of 8.07 (the lesser the number on the magnitude scale the brighter the image).

By 11 p.m. Saturn's other moons, Lepetus (10.85), Hyperion (13.98), Tethys (9.95), Dione (10.15), Rhea (9.45), Enceladus (11.45) and Mimas (12.65) were faintly visible.

The number of moons visible increased as it neared midnight. By 10.30 p.m. on Monday a small northern portion of the planet could be seen below the rings. The bright Beehive star cluster in the constellation of Cancer could be seen near the planet.

By the end of February, Saturn will begin to move away from the cluster and will not be visible through the telescope after June.

The rings can be seen faintly only for the next 20 days.

V.P. Ramamurthy, managing trustee of an engineering college, visited the planetarium on two days to watch Saturn. "The rings were bright and clearly visible and quite interesting to watch," he said.

"Titan seen clearly as a dot stole the show," Kamala Ravi, a primary school teacher said. "There are a lot of superstitions about Saturn but, for me, it was a dream come to true to watch the most beautiful planet of our solar system in all its glory."

On public demand, the planetarium authorities have planned to set up their telescopes to catch Saturn live again on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

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