Since 1989, thousands of extrasolar planets have been discovered orbiting other stars. That’s just in the immediate vicinity of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. There are also thousands of possible planets discovered that haven’t been officially confirmed yet.

We certainly haven’t seen any of these planets directly with much detail because of the vast distances of space, but that day may come.

In the meantime, it’s hard to imagine a world much more beautiful than our Earth.

In second place, in my opinion, is Saturn, which reached its closest approach to Earth earlier this year, a little over 830 million miles away.

Astronomers call this opposition. It takes just over a year for this alignment to happen. That’s because in the year it takes our Earth to orbit the sun, Saturn only moves about 1/29th of its orbital distance around the sun. It has a much larger and slower orbit. It takes the Earth about two more weeks to once again come between Saturn and the sun.

Another great thing about viewing Saturn at opposition is that it’s available all night long, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise just like a full moon.

Even though Saturn is about 7 million miles farther away this week, it’s still available pretty much all night long. It’s also a little better placed in the early evening sky for serious observing.

As a bonus, Jupiter is also close by in the heavens this year, just below and to the left of Saturn. Just look for the two brightest “stars” you can see in the low southeastern Butler sky. Jupiter is the brighter of the two and is also at its closest approach to Earth for 2021.

This week in Starwatch, however, I want to concentrate on Saturn. Jupiter is cool, but without a doubt, Saturn is my favorite planetary telescope target! It’s been that way since I was a kid. I’ll never forget seeing Saturn through a telescope for the first time in 1969 at the Woodlake Nature Center in Richfield, Minn. Wenzel Franzich changed my life that night in a fabulous way, viewing Saturn through his scope!

Even through a small telescope you can see Saturn’s ring system. That was a real thrill for me way back when, and now I’m blessed to own much larger telescopes so Saturn is really over the top! Even more fun for me is being able to show Saturn off to the hundreds of folks at my astronomy programs over the years, especially the kids. I never get tired of hearing reactions like “sweet,” “awesome,” “incredible,” and much more! If you’ve never seen Saturn through a telescope, now is the time.

If you can, hang in there and stay up as late as possible to view Saturn through a telescope, because it’ll be higher in the sky.

Whenever you observe any celestial object low in the sky, you have to look through more of Earth’s blurring atmospheric shell. That will definitely muddy up the image, and you’ll probably be a little disappointed.

You’ll get a much better view of anything you’re observing higher in the heavens. So make a late-night viewing party for Saturn, even around midnight. Saturn is worth losing sleep over!

Like all of the planets in the outer solar system, Saturn is basically a ball of hydrogen and helium gas about 75,000-miles in diameter. Its hallmark, though, is its incredible, intricate ring system that spans a diameter over 175,000 miles, more than half of the distance between Earth and its moon. Amazingly, the ring system is only around 50 feet thick in spots.

The rings are made up of billions and billions of ice particles, with some rock mixed in. The ice particles can range in size from crystals to the size of your house. Most likely, the ice is the pulverized remains of one or two of Saturn’s ice moons that were ripped apart by the planet’s tremendous tidal forces. Incidentally, when you glance at Saturn with the naked eye, most of the light you see is sunlight reflecting off Saturn’s ring system.

Along with Saturn’s rings, it’s also possible to see some of Saturn’s moons, even with a small telescope. The moons resemble tiny stars surrounding the planet. The brightest and biggest is Titan, over 3,200 miles in diameter. That’s larger than the planet Mercury! Enceladus, one of Saturn’s much smaller moons, is a strong candidate for possible life under its surface. The Cassini spacecraft during its 13 years orbiting Saturn detected geysers of water shooting out of Enceladus before it purposely plunged into Saturn at the end of its very successful mission.

When you’re viewing Saturn or any other planet with a telescope, it’s important to discipline yourself to take long, continuous views through your ’scope. Your eye needs to adjust to the level of light coming into your telescope. You also want to catch pockets of less turbulent air for better views of Saturn. As with a lot of things in life, you’ll be rewarded for persistence.

Enjoy Saturn. It’s the best!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.