Stargazing in August: Mission to a primeval Earth

Focus a small telescope on Saturn and you’re in for a surprise, writes Nigel Henbest

Crucible of life? Titan, in front of Saturn’s rings (Nasa/JPL-Caltech/SSI)

Down in the southern sky this month you’ll find a bright yellowish “star” with an oddity: it doesn’t twinkle. This is the planet Saturn, at its nearest and brightest on 14 August.

Focus a small telescope on Saturn and you’re in for a surprise. However many photos of Saturn’s famous rings you’ve seen, they don’t prepare you for the real thing. The ringworld looks three-dimensional, like an exquisite model hanging in front of the telescope.

And you’ll notice the largest of Saturn’s 82 confirmed moons, moving round the planet from night to night. Titan is bigger even than the planet Mercury and so massive that it holds on to an atmosphere that’s denser than the air we breathe on Earth.