In an interesting astronomical phenomenon, planet Saturn will be at its brightest and biggest, and closest to the Earth in the entire year on March 9 at 1.23 am IST. In technical terms, Saturn will be in opposition. It can be spotted with the naked eye after sunset up to the last week of August. One has to look exactly in the opposite direction of the sun set towards the east above the horizon.
A planet is said to be in opposition when it is directly opposite the sun from man’s viewpoint on the Earth. On March 9 the Sun, Earth and Saturn will be in a straight line and opposite each other. The result is the object, fully illuminated by the sun, appears disc-like.