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Observing Saturn through a telescope
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth.
What Saturn is
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth of the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter, it has less than a third of its mass. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km), with an orbital period of 29.45 years.
Observing Saturn through a telescope
Saturn's rings are the showpiece of the night sky and are obvious in almost any telescope at moderate magnification. Larger apertures show the Cassini division in the rings and the moon Titan.
Planets and the Moon reward higher magnification than deep-sky objects, but only up to what the air will allow: on a turbulent night the image boils and less power shows more. Magnification is your telescope's focal length divided by your eyepiece's focal length, so a shorter eyepiece gives more power. Use the Fit My Telescope tool to see the magnification and exit pupil each of your eyepieces gives before you observe.
Saturn in NASA imagery
NASA has imaged Saturn in detail. One example in the NASA Image and Video Library is titled History of Hubble Space Telescope (HST), from MSFC. NASA imagery is in the public domain.
What magnification suits Saturn?
Open the Fit My Telescope toolSee the magnification and exit pupil each eyepiece givesFind telescope eyepiece on eBayaffiliateRelated
Sources: Saturn (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA) · Wikidata (CC0) · NASA Image and Video Library: 9019795 (public domain)