You can use the bright orange star Arcturus – and learn a playful phrase useful to skywatchers – to help you be certain you are identifying the planet Saturn in 2012. Scouts learn this phrase. Grandparents teach it to kids. It was one of the first sky tools I learned to use in astronomy.

The phrase is: follow the arc to Arcturus and drive a spike to Spica.

Follow the arc to Arcturus and drive a spike to Spica

Saturn is easy to spot in April 2012 skies. In fact, on April 15, Earth will fly between Saturn and the sun, placing the ringed planet opposite the sun in our sky. That means we’re now in the middle of the best time of year to see Saturn, and this golden planet is about as bright as it will be for 2012.

Saturn closest, brightest, opposite the sun on April 15

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That’s where the star Arcturus comes in. Once you find Arcturus, you are on your way to finding the star Spica, as the chart at the right shows – and the golden planet Saturn. In 2012, golden Saturn is close sparkling silvery-blue Spica in the eastern sky on April 2012 evenings. Read more: Give me five minutes, I’ll give you Saturn

Follow the arc to Arcturus. Here’s how to locate Arcturus. First locate the Big Dipper asterism in the northeastern sky in mid-evening, maybe around 9 p.m. It is very easy to see, a large noticeable dipper-shaped pattern in the northeast in the evening. Once you can see the Big Dipper, notice that it has two parts: a bowl and a handle. Then, with your mind’s eye, draw an imaginary line following the curve in the Dipper’s handle until you come to a bright orange star: follow the arc to Arcturus. Arcturus is the brightest star the constellation Bootes the Herdsman. This star is known in skylore as the Bear Guard.

Arcturus, orange star, cuts through galaxy’s disk

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Arcturus is a giant star with an estimated distance of 37 light-years. It’s special because it’s not moving with the general stream of stars in the flat disk of the Milky Way galaxy. Instead, Arcturus is cutting perpendicularly through the galaxy’s disk at a tremendous rate of speed . . . some 150 kilometers per second. Millions of years from now this star will be lost from the view of any future inhabitants of Earth, or at least those who are earthbound and looking with the eye alone.

Drive a spike to Spica … and Saturn in 2012. Once you’ve followed the curve of the Big Dipper’s handle to Arcturus, you’re on your way to finding the planet Saturn. Just extend that same curve on the sky’s dome: drive a spike to Spica.

Spica is in the constellation Virgo the Maiden. It represents an Ear of Wheat held in the Maiden’s hand. The ringed planet Saturn is right next to Spica on the sky’s dome right now. So when you drive your spike to Spica, you’ll find not one, but two objects. Saturn is slightly brighter, and – while Spica is blue-white – Saturn golden in color.

Spica is a whirling double star

Bottom line: Use the curve in the handle of the Big Dipper to “follow the arc” to the star Arcturus. Then “drive a spike” to the star Spica. In 2012, you’ll find the planet Saturn right next to Spica on the sky’s dome. Try it, on a lovely spring evening soon.

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