At least according to most Earthlings, our home planet is considered the prettiest in our solar system.

It's hard to disagree with that when you see it from afar. The Apollo astronauts in the late '60s and early '70s were really the first humans to behold the site of our world as a whole. Even from the Curiosity rover on Mars the Earth shows up on photos as a tiny but delightful blue dot.

Many people, including this stargazer, put Saturn in second place for the most beautiful planet in our solar system and certainly the best planet to gaze upon from here on Earth, even with a small telescope.

Jupiter is great, but I so look forward to training my telescope on the ringed wonder of our solar system. Now it's true that other planets like Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus have ring systems also, but nothing beats the ring system surrounding Saturn, the second largest planet in our local family of planets.

Saturn has come into prime time for viewing this month and will be available in our Butler evening skies through the rest of the summer and right on into October.

It reached its very closest approach to the Earth on July 9 when it was just less that 840 million miles away, which believe or not is considered close for Saturn.

This closest approach is something astronomers call opposition when Earth in its yearly orbit around the sun, and Saturn in its 29-year orbit around our home star, line up in such a way that the Earth lies roughly in a line between the sun and Saturn. This happens about once a year.

Another benefit of opposition, besides the relative proximity of it, is that the ringed wonder occupies our celestial dome all night long, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise.

Saturn is certainly easy to locate in the early evening sky. Just as evening twilight winds down look in the southern sky for the brightest starlike object you can see. That's actually Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

Jupiter reached opposition in May. To find Saturn, it's easy. Just look for the next brightest starlike object you can see a little to the lower left of Jupiter in the southeast sky. That's it, that's Saturn.

I absolutely love showing people Saturn through my telescopes at my star- gazing parties. I just stand back and wait for the oohs and ahs, especially from the kids.

Now in all humility I have some pretty big scopes at my star parties, but the great thing about Saturn is that you don't need that big of a scope to enjoy it. With even a smaller scope you can get a nice view of Saturn and its ring system.

In fact, if you can't resolve Saturn's rings through your scope there's something wrong with it. Even with the best of scopes there are important things you need to do to insure maximum viewing enjoyment.

n First, make sure your telescope and all of the eyepieces sit outside for at least half an hour so that the optics can acclimate to the outside temperature.

n Secondly, I would also wait to view Saturn until after it's had a chance to rise high enough in the sky so you don't have to look through as much of our Earth's blurring atmosphere. After about 11 p.m. should do the trick.

n Thirdly, try to take long continuous looks through your telescope at Saturn and its moon. As your eye gets used to the light level within the eyepiece, the more detail you'll see.

Saturn has a diameter of 75,000 miles, but the ring system has a diameter over 150,000 miles and that's more than half of the distance between the Earth and our moon. Even though the ring system is that wide it's less than a mile in thickness and in some spots only around 30 feet thick.

Because of the inclination of Saturn's polar axis to its orbit around the Sun, the inclination of its ring system goes through a 28-year cycle. Back in 2009 the ring system was on edge from our view on Earth and nearly invisible.

The angle has opened up greatly since then, allowing us to really see the rings and also making Saturn a little brighter. The bummer about viewing Saturn this summer is that because of where it is located among the stars this year it will never get all that high in the sky and so we'll be forced to see it behind a thicker layer of our Earth's atmosphere near the horizon.

Saturn's rings are composed of billions of mainly tiny bits of ice and ice-covered rocks. Some of the debris is the size of a minivan, but most of it is very minute. Saturn's rings show up so well because the ice in the rings is very reflective to sunlight.

At last count Saturn has more than 50 moons with the largest one, Titan, being larger than the planet Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. Titan has a heavy methane atmosphere and even has methane lakes.

As fascinating as Titan is, the small moon Enceladus has really grabbed some astronomical headlines recently as the Cassini has photographed water plumes shooting from cracks in the moon's surface.

Enceladus is now believed to have a lake that's maybe bigger than Lake Superior. Most telescopes will reveal at least some of Saturn's moons that resemble tiny little stars swarming Saturn, with Titan being decidedly brighter than the rest.

Have a splendid Saturn summer.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact Mike Lynch at mikewlynch@comcast.net.