In reply to Michael Hood:
> My spotting scope has just enough magnification (x36) to be able to see Saturn's rings - as a couple of "handles" with a gap between them and the planet.
> If you've got an astronomical telescope then views of Saturn must be pretty good - it's receding now from its closest point a month or so ago - will be 17 (?) years until it's this close again.
I had good views of Saturn and Jupiter towards the end of September with my spotting scope. The only drawbacks were the field of view isn't that big so they were a bit difficult to find and being low down the view was through a lot of the atmosphere, but both were good to see.
As you say the gap between the rings and Saturn was visible.
I find this site - https://in-the-sky.org/ useful for info on coming events. It can be linked to your location and notes if you need naked eye, binoculars or a telescope to see things.
Stellarium - http://stellarium.org/ - which is free to download is also handy.
Dave