Saturn is now brighter than at anytime in the past three decades and makes a fine and simple skywatching target in the evening sky.

The great ringed beauty arrives at opposition to the Sun on Dec. 17 when Earth and Saturn are in on the same side of the Sun and all three objects are lined up and puts on an all-night performance with greatest gleam. It rises as the Sun sets, reaching its highest point in the southern sky at midnight and setting as the Sun rises.

Saturn is shining as bright as it can ever get, mimicking a beautiful golden-yellow "star" within the horns of the constellation of Taurus, the Bull. It shines at magnitude 0.5. On this scale used by astronomers, smaller numbers indicate brighter objects, with negative numbers reserved for the very brightest.

There are two reasons why Saturn appears so exceptionally bright this winter season:

First, the planet is now about as close to the Earth as it can ever come. Saturn will reach the perihelion point of its orbit (nearest to the Sun) on July 26, 2003. This circumstance will also bring Saturn near to its closest possible approach to Earth during successive December oppositions in 2002 and 2003.

On Dec. 17 of this year Saturns distance from Earth will be 748, 474,580 miles away.

The second reason for Saturns unusual brilliance are its spectacular rings which right now appear almost fully open to our view, so that they reflect more sunlight toward Earth than usual. During December, the rings are dramatically tipped more than 26.5 degrees to our line of sight. In other years, the rings can be almost edge-on and nearly impossible to see.

Without question the rings make Saturn the telescopic showpiece of the night sky. In small telescopes, they surprise observers with their chilling beauty, even when one expects to see them.

On Thursday evening, Dec. 19, Saturn will hover to the right of the Full Moon, making it impossible to miss. This would be a good time to dig that small telescope out of your closet, to explore the Moon and see if you can spot Saturns rings.

Any telescope magnifying more than 30-power will now show them quite well. Although visually they appear solid, the rings actually consist of countless billions of particles chiefly consisting of water ice ranging in size from icebergs to microscopic flecks.

Next April 7, the maximum Saturnicentric latitude of Earth will be attained. In other words, Saturns ring system will be open at its widest to Earth (27 degrees). Such extremes generally come at approximately 15-year intervals, with the last one in September 1988 and the next not coming until October 2017.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the first to view the rings, in 1610, although what he saw through his crude telescope left him completely baffled. Saturn appeared to him not to have rings but rather two smaller bodies flanking it on either side. In writing about his discovery, he had no word for it and so included a small drawing, substituting as a noun, in the text.

Later, when the rings turned edgewise to Earth and the two companions disappeared, Galileo invoked an ancient myth when he wrote, "Has Saturn swallowed his children?" It was not until March 1655 that a Dutch mathematician, Christian Huygens (1629-1695) utilized a much better telescope, and saw the rings for what they really were.

Saturn was the god of agriculture. The name is related to both the noun satus (seed corn) and the verb serere (to sow).

But why would the planet Saturn be linked to agriculture?

Perhaps a clue can be found from the ancient Assyrians who referred to Saturn as lubadsagush, which translated, meant "oldest of the old sheep." Perhaps this name was applied because Saturn seems to move so very slowly among the stars. Possibly this slow movement accounts for its Latin name too; it may have reminded sky watchers of the slow gait of plowing oxen or grazing cattle.