A calm yellow point to the eye. The rings need a telescope, but even a small one shows them clearly.
A calm yellow point to the eye. The rings need a telescope, but even a small one shows them clearly.
At the moment Saturn shines at magnitude 0.5 and lies 8.89 astronomical units from Earth. Its position on the sky is right ascension 0.96 hours, declination +3.4°.
Planets shine with a steady light while stars twinkle. That is not folklore: stars are point sources and the atmosphere smears them, whereas a planet presents a tiny disc that averages out the turbulence. If it is bright and calm, it is a planet.