Today November 23, 2025 there will be an astronomical event not to be missed for lovers of the iconic “lord of the rings”, the planet Saturn. That day, in fact, its characteristic rings they will appear cut away from the perspective of our planet. Due to the tilt of Saturn’s and Earth’s axis relative to their orbital plane around the Sun, the tilt of Saturn’s rings varies throughout the year when observed from our planet. During 2025, the rings reached their maximum inclination with respect to the Earth towards the end of June, while the minimum inclination occurred on two occasions this year: the first on Marchhowever, when the planet was in conjunction with the Sun and therefore unobservable, and the second on November 23, thus representing the latterunique opportunity to observe this curious celestial event. On November 23rd the rings will be tilted just 0.4º from our line of sight. Saturn will therefore appear, only if observed with a telescopewithout its ring system, a highly unusual sight for this gas giant. The moment of maximum inclination it is instead scheduled for 2032.
Why the rings will “disappear” from Saturn
Saturn’s rings will become “invisible” from Earth thanks to a perspective game. Saturn, like Earth, has a rotation axis that is tilted relative to its orbital plane around the Sun by approximately 26.7°three more than Earth. The inclination means that during the orbit around our star the planet’s equator, on whose plane the rings lie, oscillates between a positive inclination of 26.7° and a negative one of the same amount, passing through a zero inclination relative to the orbital plane.
At the moment of zero inclination, the rings, which lie right along the projection of the planet’s equator, will also have a zero inclination, that is, they will be edge-on when observed from the Sun. In addition to this, Saturn’s orbit is also inclined by 2.48° compared to that on Earth. This means that the shear configuration seen from the Sun does not coincide with the shear configuration seen from the Earth. This year, the rings appeared edge-on from the Sun’s perspective on May 6thwhile from the Earth’s perspective the rings have become “invisible” the March 23 and they will be the November 23. On March 23, this phenomenon was not observed from Earth since Saturn was in conjunction with the Sun. On November 23, however, Saturn will be clearly visible for a large part of the night, as it reached theopposition (opposite position in the sky compared to the Sun) the September 21st.
It is worth specifying that the rings they won’t be exactly cut. There will in fact be a small angle of 0.4º between Saturn’s rings and our line of sight which however is difficult to appreciate with amateur telescopes. To have a zero inclination situation again you will have to wait until October 15, 2038 since as a consequence of the relative motion of Earth and Saturn, the cutting configuration of the rings occurs with a period between 13.7 and 15.7 years. The moment of maximum inclination it will instead be in 2032.
How and when to observe the astronomical event
It is good to make it clear that to observe this celestial event it will be necessary to have a good one telescopepossibly with openings greater than 5 centimeters and eyepieces with generous magnification. To the naked eye, Saturn will appear pinpoint and bright like every other time, without any noteworthy changes. On November 23, at sunset, Saturn will already be at 30º high on the south-east horizon. The maximum height in the sky of 44th will be reached on the southern horizon around 7.40pmwhile sunset will occur around1:00 am. The best time to make observations will therefore be from about an hour after sunset until 11 p.mafter which Saturn will start to be too low on the southwestern horizon. The proximity to the new Moon phase will make the event even better to observe since the sky will not be contaminated by the light of our natural satellite.
