The planet Saturn returns to our evening sky this week, and I think anyone who has ever seen it through a telescope would argue that it is their favorite of all.

I know that some prefer the Red Planet Mars or the glistening crescent of Venus.

Personally, I like the amazing cloud bands and moons of Jupiter. But Saturn ... it just captures the imagination like no other.

While Saturn looks much like Jupiter, though smaller, it's the beautiful ring system that gives this planet a unique appearance.

Even a small instrument with a magnifying power of only 30x or so will easily let you see these rings.

I've been showing the public this planet for more than 50 years, and I've heard all kinds of oohs and aahs.

The best reaction I've ever heard, however, was from a gentleman from Italy just last year. Upon gazing at the remarkably three-dimensional ringed world hanging in the blackness of space, he gasped and exclaimed: "Bellissimo!"

Now that was a reaction worth remembering!

Saturn reaches its annual "opposition" point early this week, when it lies in our sky directly opposite the sun, rising in the east-southeast at sunset and glistening all night long.

Its opposition also means that the planet is closest to the Earth. This week, Saturn lies only about 805 million miles from us and, as a result, it appears larger than at any other time.

Finding Saturn in the sky isn't too tough. Look for a bright "star" low in the eastern sky just after dark. You should have little trouble finding it because it's the only bright object in that area of the sky.

It will remain in our evening sky throughout the summer and autumn months, drifting westward from summer to fall to winter, but only during the next month or so can we expect the largest view with a small telescope.

What makes Saturn appear unusual right now is that its rings are turned almost edge-on to our line of sight.

These rings are nearly 180,000 miles wide -- if brought to Earth they would nearly fill the space between our planet and the moon -- but less than a mile thick.

Because of their current orientation, they appear quite thin. In fact, next year the ring plane will lie almost directly along our line of sight, and the rings will be nearly impossible to see.

Don't worry, though, they'll be back. Over the next few years, we'll see them begin to "open up" once again, reaching their maximum exposure to us in 2032.

Sometimes a telescope allows us to see Saturn's pastel cloud bands, but they are pretty subtle and we need excellent atmospheric conditions and optics to spot them.

And if that's not enough, Titan, Saturn's largest and brightest moon, frequently appears with even the smallest of instruments as a tiny "star" nearby, as do several of its smaller moons that orbit the planet.

Now's a great time to break out your telescope, or visit your local amateur astronomy club, to get a view of this stunningly beautiful world.

When you do, I'm pretty sure you'll agree with my Italian friend: "Bellissimo!"