Saturn this month

Saturn is in the evening sky, 157° east of the Sun: look after sunset. It shines at magnitude +0.4 in Cetus.

Magnitude: +0.4
Constellation: Cetus
From the Sun: 157° east
Distance: 8.50 AU (1,272 million km)
Apparent size: 18.9″
Position: RA 0h 39m, Dec +1.4°

Saturn and its wide ring system, tilted towards the viewer. NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley), OPAL Team, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Rise and set today in six cities

City	Sunset	Saturn rises	Saturn sets	Sunrise
London	16:44	16:09	04:32	06:43
New York	17:59	17:07	05:24	07:19
Los Angeles	18:05	17:04	05:19	07:07
Singapore	18:50	17:22	05:29	06:46
Sydney	19:17	17:17	05:17	06:01
Cape Town	19:09	17:06	05:07	05:52

Local times on 26 October 2026. A planet that rises before sunset and sets after it is up in the evening; one that rises in the small hours is a morning object.

The year ahead

Angular distance from the Sun as seen from Earth. Inside the shaded band (15°) a planet is lost in twilight.

Coming events

Conjunction: 7 April 2027, 17:18 UTC (behind the Sun, not visible)
Opposition: 18 October 2027, 00:35 UTC (opposite the Sun: up all night, closest and brightest)
Conjunction: 20 April 2028, 12:10 UTC (behind the Sun, not visible)
Opposition: 30 October 2028, 17:33 UTC (opposite the Sun: up all night, closest and brightest)
Conjunction: 4 May 2029, 16:57 UTC (behind the Sun, not visible)
Opposition: 13 November 2029, 15:00 UTC (opposite the Sun: up all night, closest and brightest)

Close approaches

7 May 2027: Venus and Saturn 0.6° apart

Seeing Saturn

Saturn looks like a fairly bright, pale yellow star that moves slowly, taking about two and a half years to cross each zodiac constellation. A small telescope at 25x or more shows the rings, one of the most memorable first views in astronomy. The rings' tilt as seen from Earth changes over a 15-year cycle; they were edge-on in 2025 and are opening again.