Saturn’s rings and moons
The rings and the eight major moons as they look in a telescope at any moment. The rings’ tilt changes slowly over Saturn’s 29-year orbit, while the moons move from hour to hour.
The rings are tilted 7.1° towards Earth, showing their southern face. From New York Saturn is below the horizon at this time.
Outside the frame: Iapetus.
Drag sideways to move through time, scroll or pinch to zoom, tap a moon to pick it out.
- : 2.1 Saturn radii E
- : 2.2 Saturn radii W
- : 2.7 Saturn radii W
- : 2.0 Saturn radii W
- : 7.0 Saturn radii W
- : 17.9 Saturn radii W
- : 12.9 Saturn radii W
- : 40.6 Saturn radii W
Why the rings change
Saturn’s rings lie in the plane of its equator, which is tilted about 27 degrees to its orbit. As Saturn goes round the Sun, every 29 years, Earth sees the rings from above, edge on, from below and edge on again.
Binoculars and the naked eye show north up and east on the left. A Newtonian reflector turns the view upside down (south up). A refractor or Schmidt-Cassegrain with a star diagonal shows a mirror image (north up, east on the right).
Moon positions and ring tilt: Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, chapters 45 and 46, as implemented by the astronomia library, with Saturn’s position from Astronomy Engine. Ring sizes: NASA Saturnian rings fact sheet. Data sources
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to see the moons?
Jupiter’s four large moons show in steady binoculars. Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, shows in a small telescope.
Why is the view flipped compared with my telescope?
The view is drawn as the eye sees the sky, with east on the left. Many telescopes flip or mirror the image.
How accurate are the positions?
They come from Astronomy Engine’s model of the moons and are accurate to well within what a telescope shows.
Related guides
- Binoculars for stargazing: what to buy and what to look atA pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars shows the craters of the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, dozens of star clusters and the Andromeda Galaxy, for a fraction of the cost of a telescope.
- How to find planets in the night skyFive planets are easy to see with the naked eye. Here is where to look, when, and how to recognise them.