ASTR 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Hindenburg Disaster, Quora, Binoculars
31 Jul 2017
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Document Summary
Saturn can be seen with the naked eye. It is the last of the planets that we can see without any aids because it is the 5th brightest object in the solar system. You can also use small telescopes or binoculars to get a better image. The ancient babylonians knew about it as did the chinese. The polar diameter is 90% of the equatorial diameter. This is because saturn had a low density and a very fast spin rate. A day on saturn lasts 10 hours in. That makes it the second fastest rotating planet after mercury. Saturn orbits the sun every 30 years. Because it was so slow, the ancient assyrians called it lubadsagush which means oldest of the old . The name fits because you would age 30 years and die in those days before saturn ever made it once around the sun. Saturn could float in a bathtub theoretically.
