Saturn to be at its brightest today

Planet Saturn, known as 'Lord of the Rings', will be visible at its brightest in the sky today as it positions itself directly opposite the Sun. Due to its positioning, the planet will also be the closest it can get to Earth in the year 2013

Planet Saturn, known as 'Lord of the Rings', will be visible at its brightest in the sky on Sunday as it positions itself directly opposite the Sun.

Saturn will be at its 'opposition' on Sunday at 13:58 IST, SPACE Director C B Devgun said.

An object is said to be at opposition when the Sun is on one side of the Earth and the object is directly on the opposite side. The result is that the object is fully illuminated by the Sun and appears disk-like, he said.

Astro enthusiasts will be able to view the planet and its rings by placing their telescopes facing towards the East and locate it an hour after the sunset.

The last opposition occurred on April 15, 2012, and the next one will happen on May 10, 2014. It will shine at a magnitude of 0.1 Mag, Devgun said.

Due to its positioning, the planet will also be the closest it can get to Earth in the year 2013, N Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society of India said.