Now there’s a new player in the game, the ringed world Saturn, and you’re going to want to take a peek. 

You’ll find Saturn rising in the east just after sunset.

You’re looking for a small yellowish “starlike” point of light.

Pan around with your binoculars and you’re sure to spot it.

Saturn is a captivating sight, even in a small telescope, but it’s also somewhat fickle.

Your local seeing conditions will be the greatest make or break.

Try to magnify it too much and it defies you by turning into a blurry mess.

Saturn also rewards time spent looking, don’t rush, relax and things start to appear as your eyes get better at seeing.

Overall, I find that a yellow filter sharpens up the whole planet appreciably.

A view of Saturn in a good telescope often draws gasps from visitors.

It’s the planet with the “wow factor”.

Every time I show people Saturn for the first time they turn around with a wide grin and say, “Wow, it really is there!” 

But, there is a warning about viewing Saturn through a telescope.

It could get you hooked on astronomy – it did with me.

Right now the rings are tilted in our direction and getting wider.

They were edge on in 2009 and almost impossible to see.

This is the best time in three decades to view Saturn.

Visit your local astronomy club, they’ll have large telescopes available for Saturn and a dozen other sky goodies to boot.

While you’re quietly taking in Saturn at the eyepiece consider this.

Saturn is so light that if you had an ocean big enough to hold it, it would float. 

Saturn’s rings are only 10 metres thick and are made almost entirely of ice.

Astronomers believe a huge comet on a collision course broke up around the planet shattering into millions of bits of dust, dirt and ice.

Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, and more than 750 Earths could fit inside it.

So, now you know why we call Saturn the Lord Of the Rings.