Weather permitting, Otago sky watchers with telescopes will tonight be able to watch Titan, Saturn's largest moon, crossing the planet's rings.
Dunedin Astronomical Society former president Ash Pennell said people with small telescopes should be able to see the planet Saturn as a bright yellow light standing alone in the northeast sky.
Titan would cross (or "transit") the rings, from 10.50pm until 1.20am tomorrow.
During this time, the planet would rise from about 15 above the horizon to much higher in the northern sky, Mr Pennell said.
Titan is the largest of about 60 moons of Saturn, and is bigger than our own Moon.
Saturn would offer stargazers for the rest of this month, and throughout autumn, a visual spectacle observable only about six times a century, he said.
Because the rings would appear "edge on" as a narrow band, over the next few months, it would be possible, from time to time, to watch moons travelling along the line of the rings and sometimes crossing them.
Saturn was "one of the most exciting objects in the sky to look at" and people who had never seen it through a telescope before found it definitely had the "wow factor", he said.
