By Tom O'Neill
The Cincinnati Enquirer

At 750 million miles away, Saturn can't get any closer to Earth than it will be beginning today.

But a heavy cloud cover predicted for this morning and again tonight - the first day of maximum closeness - couldn't be any less cooperative.

And that's not likely to change this week. This proximity should last several weeks, however.

Tristate astronomy enthusiasts who were excited by the opportunity to see the planet's rings with even a small telescope were equally disappointed by the weather. "We would have taken people to see it, but there's no use," astronomer Paul Nohr of the Cincinnati Observatory in Hyde Park said Monday night.

Saturn, the second-largest planet behind Jupiter, will be visible in its current range through May, Mr. Nohr said. But he added that the difference in distance from tonight to say, next week, is too small to notice from behind a telescope.

Saturn has seven thin, flat rings that were first observed by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygensin 1656. Forty-six years earlier, Italian astronomer Galileo first discovered Saturn, but he mistook the series of rings for large satellites, according to the World Book Encyclopedia.

The occasion tonight is called "opposition,." when Saturn and the sun are on opposite sides of Earth.

Now, if only the clouds \get out of the way.

E-mail toneill@enquirer.com