Starwatch Newsletter Minnesota Starwatch is a newsletter describing the night sky in the Midwest. It is updated montly, and is produced by the Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Hello, this is Minnesota Starwatch for October, 2001.

First Saturn and then Jupiter will be rising in the east after about 9pm this month. You can actually see the beautiful rings of Saturn through a good pair of binoculars. A fancy telescope is not necessary. Try and wait until about midnight so that Saturn has time to rise well above the horizon. This way there will be less of the Earth's atmosphere in the way, and you will get a clearer view.

For many decades astronomers thought Saturn's rings were a relatively permanent feature of the giant planet, perhaps dating from the formation of the solar system itself. Careful study of the stunning pictures sent back from NASA space probes has forced them to change this view. The rings of Saturn were known to be made up of countless blocks of ice and ice covered rock, each about the size of a car, orbiting around the planet. These orbits are very complicated, but more spiral-like than circular. The ring particles are actually spiraling into the planet, and could not have been in place more than several hundred million years ago! Saturn must have gotten its spectacular rings well after the planet and its satellites were formed.

About the time Jupiter and Saturn rise in the East, the two other giant planets, Uranus and Neptune, will be located due South. These are not really naked eye objects, but can be found with binoculars if you know where to look. Setting in the West is lonely Pluto, too faint to see without a telescope. Astronomers no longer consider Pluto and its companion Charon to be a full fledged planet and moon in the same sense as the other planets. Pluto is a bare, icy body, very similar to the satellites of Uranus and Neptune. Its orbit around the Sun is dominated by the effects of Neptune, which controls most of what takes place in the frigid outer reaches of the Solar System.

Friday night telescope viewing begins at 9pm during the month of October. Please call 626-0034 for more information.

The Minneapolis Planetarium offers a wide variety of programs for all ages. For more information, call (612) 630-6150.

For those interested in the Minnesota Astronomical Society, call (651) 649-4861 for information on their upcoming events.

Minnesota Starwatch is available online at http://ast1.spa.umn.edu/Outreach/pub_out.html.

This has been Minnesota Starwatch, produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department in cooperation with WCCO Weather Center.

Last Updated: Mon Apr 28 10:27:01 2003