I have a love affair with Saturn. There are many celestial treasures that I marvel at through the lenses of my telescopes, but my absolute favorite is Saturn.

Whenever I get a chance, I absolutely love to show off Saturn with my telescopes, especially to children.

I know many folks who have forgotten their first look at the ringed wonder of our solar system. I'm lucky enough to have large telescopes to provide that first encounter with Saturn, but what's great is that it's a wonderful sight through even the smallest of telescopes. It has its own special and unique beauty, made up of a gorgeous ring system that spans more than 150,000 miles in diameter, circling a planet that has a girth of 75,000 miles.

Saturn will be available in the Butler evening sky through mid-August, and right now is an especially good time to catch the sixth planet from the sun.

All this month Saturn and Earth are at their closest approach to each other as both planets travel in their respective orbits around our sun.

Presently, less than 820 million miles separates us from Saturn. While that doesn't exactly seem like a hop, skip and a jump away, it is more than 150 million miles closer than it was when we last saw it in the evening late last September. That does make a big difference in how it appears through your scope.

Not only is Saturn at its closest point to Earth for 2013, but its also visible all night long.

That's because Earth lies in a nearly straight line between Saturn and the sun right now. That puts Earth and Saturn at opposite ends of the sky. Appropriately, astronomers call this temporary alignment “opposition.”

Saturn is easy to find with the naked eye as it appears to be one of the brighter “stars” in the sky.

Around 10 p.m. look for two bright stars in the fairly low southeastern sky. They will be orientated diagonally. The brighter of the two on the lower left is Saturn. The shiner on the upper right is the star Spica, the brightest star in the large but faint constellation Virgo the Virgin.

For the rest of the night, Saturn will arc across the southern half of the sky and won't set until sunrise. It's pulling an “all nighter!”

When viewing Saturn through any telescope, patience is a huge virtue!

First off, it's best this month to wait until around 11 p.m. to start viewing Saturn through your scope. That will let it rise high enough in the sky to avoid the murky effect of Earth's atmosphere. As with any celestial object, the lower it is in the sky, the more of Earth's atmosphere you have to visually plow through. In fact, if you're a real late nighter, the midnight hour is even better as Saturn reaches its highest spot in the sky.No matter how late you wait to telescope Saturn, it's very important to take long uninterrupted views of it. You need to get your eye used to the light level in the eyepiece field. This also helps because the clarity of Saturn can vary from minute to minute and even second by second due to high winds in the Earth's atmosphere.Also, whenever you use a telescope make sure you let it sit outside so the optics can acclimate to the temperature. Along with that, remember that whatever you're viewing through the scope, start out using a lower magnification eyepiece and then work your way up to the higher powers.The tricky thing here is that the higher the magnification of Saturn or anything else, the fuzzier it will appear. There's nothing wrong with your telescope. That's just the way it is.Saturn is one of the gas giants of the solar system, made up mainly of hydrogen and helium, but by itself is not all that exciting to look at through a telescope.The ring system, though, is a whole other story. While the rings span more than 150,000 miles in diameter, they are only about 50 feet thick!It's made up of billions and billions of ice covered rocks ranging from the size of dust grains to boulders bigger than garbage trucks. It's believed that they are the pulverized remains of one or two of Saturn's moons that wandered a little too close to Saturn in their lopsided orbits and were literally blown to bits by the planet's tremendous gravitational tides.If your view of Saturn is clear enough, you may see the ring system is actually a family of thinner rings complete with gaps. The biggest gap, which looks like a “black ring,” is close to the outer edge of the ring system. It's called the Cassini Division and is more than 2,500 miles wide.Cassini is also the name of the spacecraft that's been orbiting Saturn the last several years that has sent back truly amazing pictures and data. It's even sent back the sounds of thunder and lightning coming from storms in Saturn's turbulent atmosphere.Along with the rings, you may see up to six or seven tiny starlike objects surrounding Saturn. These are some of Saturn's many orbiting moons.You'll notice a decidedly bright moon called Titan, one of the largest moons in our solar system. At 3,200 miles in diameter, it's larger than the planet Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.Enceladus, one of Saturn's tiniest moons, has really grabbed headlines in the last few years. The Cassini spacecraft has detected and photographed liquid water plumes gushing from cracks in the surface of this 300 mile-wide Saturn satellite. It's believed that tidal forces from the much more massive Saturn are strong enough to heat up Enceladus's interior enough for liquid water.Wherever there's liquid water, there's at least a small chance of some kind of life. Stay tuned, there's bound to be more about this possibility in years to come.The bottom line here is that you should beg, borrow or do whatever you have to this month to see Saturn through a telescope. You'll never forget that first look! You'll be in Saturn love forever!Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores and at www.adventurepublications.net.