Saturn

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The sixth planet from the Sun, the second largest planet in our solar system, Saturn, is attractive sky object for watching and photographing. 

In 1610, Italian Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to gaze at Saturn through a telescope. To his surprise, he saw a pair of objects on either side of the planet, which he later drew as "cup handles" attached to the planet on each side. In 1659, Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens announced that this was a ring encircling the planet. In 1675, Italian-born astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini discovered a gap between what are now called the A and B rings. 

Its intricate ring system has fascinated astronomers for centuries. The rings are made of ice and rock particles - some as big as houses - that were probably pieces of comets or asteroids that broke up before they reached the planet. It extends hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the planet. In fact, Saturn and its rings would just fit in the distance between Earth and the Moon. Diameter of Saturn is 120,536 km and mass 95 x Earth.

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Saturn on March 11 . 2006. Obtained through Celestron 9,25 at f30 on Phillips webcam Pro3D (1400 frames). Processed in Registax.