Saturn moving?

Hello All,
Newbie.
Just went outside and saw something I wasn't used to. Came in to check my
little freeware star map program and realized it was Saturn. This is about
10 - 15 minutes ago and I'm on the eastern seaboard in Virginia, so I've got
Orion out my front door, facing east-ish, and Taurus is a little higher up
to the southeast, and Siruis is just coming up through the branches of the
trees.

To the left (northeast) of Orion is Castor and Pollux (I think) - at least
the star map says Gemeni, and it says that that is Saturn just to the right
of those two bright stars.

Now here's what caught my eye - I noticed that it was brighter than should
be (for a star), and yellowish so it caught my attention. I assumed it was
a planet, but it was so bright and yellow (it's cold here tonight, so the
sky is good and clear) so I thought it might be a plane, and then I noticed
it was moving.

Now that I know it's Saturn, I don't recall ever noticing perceptible
motion. I know the stars move across the sky gradually, and I know the
planets move at different rates, but does Saturn really move fast enough to
see it with the naked eye? I mean, I'm seeing it happen, but am I right?

The way I could tell was that I noticed it through some trees (leaves are
gone, just branches) and it was moving gradually behind branches and coming
in and out of view while Castor and Pollux (?) where staying stationary -
and I was trying to make sure I stood real still.

Is this right, does Saturn really move that perceptibly fast, or was I
swaying a little bit?

TIA,
Steve

Steve Latham wrote:

Just went outside and saw something I wasn't used to. Came in to check my
little freeware star map program and realized it was Saturn. This is about
10 - 15 minutes ago and I'm on the eastern seaboard in Virginia, so I've got
Orion out my front door, facing east-ish, and Taurus is a little higher up
to the southeast, and Siruis is just coming up through the branches of the
trees.

snip

Now that I know it's Saturn, I don't recall ever noticing perceptible
motion. I know the stars move across the sky gradually, and I know the
planets move at different rates, but does Saturn really move fast enough to
see it with the naked eye? I mean, I'm seeing it happen, but am I right?

The way I could tell was that I noticed it through some trees (leaves are
gone, just branches) and it was moving gradually behind branches and coming
in and out of view while Castor and Pollux (?) where staying stationary -
and I was trying to make sure I stood real still.

Is this right, does Saturn really move that perceptibly fast, or was I
swaying a little bit?

I think it must have been something like that; perhaps there was
unstable air above you, to which objects will sometimes seem to
respond differently according to their brightness, or perhaps the
tree-branches were swaying or bending in a way that made them a poor
point of reference. This month Saturn is only moving at about five or
six arc-minutes a day WRT the fixed stars, say an arc-second every
four minutes -- much too slowly to notice.

--
Odysseus