Starting with a 36-hour Hangoutathon on April 26-27, we will spend 36 days working to raise funding for CosmoQuest, a virtual research center designed for the public. Our goal is to provide anyone with an interest in space the opportunity to partner with scientists using NASA data to explore our Solar System. From the Moon to Mercury, you are invited help us do science. In exchange, we will offer you a virtual version of all the opportunities professional researchers have in their research labs. From seminars to star parties, and from planetarium shows to classes, CosmoQuest will help you learn. Recent funding cuts have made it impossible for scientists to explore all the data we have on our own, but with your help, we can explore our Solar System.

Join us for the kickoff event, a 36-Hour live video Hangout chock full of special guests, activities, and science. Join us at http://plus.google.com/events/cmsf0g75jfqlffb4m1rb34if3j0 and donate by clicking HERE

Saturn taken by Joe Lopint on June 26, 2012, AT106 and 4X Televue Powermate, Imaging Source DK0021 video camera, ~1000 images aligned and stacked with Registax

Planet lovers can rejoice: one of the finest jewels of the solar system in returning to the evening night sky.

The planet Saturn reaches opposition next month on May 10th. This means that as the Sun sets to the west, Saturn will rise “opposite” to it in the east, remaining well positioned for observation in the early evening hours throughout the summer season. In fact, we’ll have four of the five naked eye planets above the horizon at once for our evening viewing pleasure in the month of May, as Jupiter also rides high to the west at sunset, Mars just passed opposition last month and Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation on May 25th. Venus is the solitary holdout, spending a majority of 2014 in the dawn sky.

Saturn will shine at magnitude +0.3 this month and its disk spans an apparent 19,” or 44” if you take into account the apparent width of its rings. The rings are currently tipped open 22 degrees with respect to our line of sight. The ring opening is widening, and will reach a maximum of over 25 degrees in 2017 before the trend reverses. Anyone who remembers observing Saturn back in 2009 will recall that its rings were edge on to our view. This widening of Saturn’s rings also lends itself to a curious effect: although we’re in a cycle of oppositions that are getting farther away — Saturn is 12.5 million kilometres or 0.083 Astronomical Units (A.U.s) more distant in 2014 than it was during opposition last year as it’s headed towards aphelion in 2018 — its widening rings are actually making it appear a bit brighter.

via Saturn at Opposition: Our 2014 Guide.