Saturn makes a breathtaking appearance for those observing in the evening

D uring February Saturn will be an evening object, but well past its best. At the end of January it will already be quite low in the southwest as the Sun sets, looking like a yellow-white ‘star’ in the setting constellation of Aquarius. Saturn will set just a few hours after the Sun, so you won’t have long to see it. And by the end of February it won’t be visible at all.

But if you are a fan of this distant, magical ringed world, you should make every effort to see it as often as you can, because it will soon be a lot fainter and will look a lot less impressive in telescopes. This is because from our point of view here on Earth, Saturn is tilting up, so its rings will appear narrower and less obvious for the next few years. By next July the rings will have almost closed up altogether, and will look like little more than a pencil-thin line around its middle. In the spring of 2025 we will see the rings edge-on, making them hard to see in anything but large telescopes. When robbed of its beautiful rings, Saturn will look like Jupiter for a while, very odd indeed. So even though Saturn isn’t particularly bright or well placed this month you really need to get out and enjoy looking at it while you can.