
Saturn at opposition
When and where to watch in 2025: Around its September 21 opposition, Saturn is rising in the east at sunset and is visible all night. Afterward, for the rest of 2025, Saturn will remain visible in the evening sky. It’ll finally disappear in the sunset glare in February 2025.
Date and time of opposition: 6 UTC on September 21, 2025 (1 a.m. CDT).
Brightness at opposition: At opposition, the ringed planet shines at its brightest for 2025 at magnitude 0.6.
Distance from Earth at opposition: Around opposition, Saturn is at its shortest distance from Earth for 2025, at 71 light-minutes (about 8.55 astronomical units).
Constellation at opposition: Saturn will be in front of Pisces the Fish and move in front of Aquarius the Water Bearer by month’s end.
Disk size at opposition: Saturn’s disk size is largest around opposition. At its largest, Saturn will appear 19.4 arcseconds across.
Ring tilt at opposition: At opposition, Saturn’s rings are tilted by 2 degrees, relative to earthly viewers. That’s very narrow. Saturn’s rings are nearly edge-on from Earth. In March 2025, when we crossed the plane of Saturn’s rings, they temporarily seemed to disappear!
Read more: Saturn’s rings are disappearing!

Around opposition is the best time to see Saturn
Opposition marks the middle of the best time of the year to see an outer planet. Even though you can’t see Saturn’s rings through binoculars, it’ll appear through binoculars as a bright oval-shaped disk. But any small backyard telescope will show the rings.
For precise sun and Saturn rising times at your location:
Old Farmer’s Almanac (U.S. and Canada)
timeanddate.com (worldwide).
Stellarium-Web (online planetarium program)


How often is Saturn at opposition?
In fact, Saturn comes to opposition nearly every earthly year. A year is the length of time Earth takes to travel once around the sun. But Saturn’s orbit around the sun takes 29.4 Earth years. So each year we have to travel slightly farther in orbit to catch up to, and pass, Saturn again. Thus Saturn oppositions are roughly 378 days apart and Saturn’s opposition comes about two weeks later each year.
Dates are based on UTC time.
2024 Saturn opposition: September 8
2025 Saturn opposition: September 21
2026 Saturn opposition: October 4
View from above the solar system, September 2025

Saturn is a world of rings and moons
Saturn is the 6th planet outward from the sun. People in ancient times saw it as a golden “star” that moved among the fixed stars: a wanderer. It wasn’t until astronomers began using telescopes in the 17th century that they saw its rings.
Astronomers used to speak of Saturn as having three rings. But spacecraft in the later part of the 20th century showed vastly more detail. In fact, they revealed that Saturn has thousands of thin, finely detailed rings made of tiny chunks of ice. Also, Saturn has at least 146 moons with confirmed orbits. Yet 83 of them don’t have names. Furthermore, only 13 of them have diameters larger than 30 miles (about 50 kilometers).
Certainly, Saturn is truly a wondrous world of rings and moons. Usually, it’s everyone’s favorite celestial object to gaze at through a small telescope. So if there’s a public astronomy night near you this month … go!


Saturn yearly changes


Bottom line: Saturn’s 2025 opposition comes on September 21, when Earth will sweep between the sun and Saturn, placing the ringed planet opposite the sun in our sky. Saturn will be in an excellent place to observe from late August through early October.
Read more: What does opposition mean for an outer planet?
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