Titan

[Becky]

I think I may have seen Titan tonight, but I'm not sure if it is possible with my wee 70mm Refractor. I was enjoying a look at Saturn and noticed a tiny point of light up and to the left (Compensating for reversed image). It may have been a dim star, but I wondered if anybody thought there was a chance of it being Titan?

I chucked it shortly after because it was getting a bit breezy and hard to focus the scope. Must be the beginning of the forecast storm. I hope everyone rides it out and stays safe.

Peace and Clear Skies.

Becky.

[radioactive]

It is possible that you did indeed see Titan its been known to view it through good Binos under the better dark skies so just maybe you did see it and if you did very well done for realising it Becky I am very glad for you keep up your good work

[Macavity]

Well, according to the latest issue of "Astronomy Now" Titan is approx. 5 diameters away from Saturn - And above and left (about 10 O'clock) today. At eighth magnitude, even visible in 10x50 binoculars. So it could (should) well BE what you see! If the storms spare us, check it has moved (as predicted) to almost directly above the planet same time tomorrow!

One thing I always forget is that Saturn's "retinue" move well out of the plane (unlike w/Jupiter), since the planet has an axial tilt. So Titan can suprise, by turning up in somewhat "unexpected" positions.

[ringz]

For finding out about Saturn's moons you could try www.cpac.org.uk , they have a nice java applet for showing positions of the moons of both Jupiter and Saturn.

The program allows you to animate the motions of the moons so you can see transits and eclipses and also shadow transits on Jupiter and the location of the great red spot.

They even allow you to download it so you can use it offline

If you have installed java on your machine and are interested in Jupiter and Saturn's moons then it's a very nice program to have.

--

Martyn

[geoff_k]

Becky

You would need to find out what the limiting magnitude of your scope is. Under ideal conditions (whatever they are!) I reckon it would be about 11 which is easily enough to see Titan which is currently around 8.1 according to Starry Night.

The other main moons (again according to SN) are:

Rhea - 9.54

Tethys - 10.04

Dione - 10.24

Iapetus - 10.94

Enceladus - 11.54

Therefore, it might be possible given really good conditions to see Titan (definitely) and possibly Rhea and Tethys as well. I think any more may well be pushing it unless you can use a webcam. As Martyn says, take a look at the moon position applet and you should be able to identify them.

It will probably take a few views on different nights to confirm what you have seen.

Happy hunting!

Geoff

[Becky]

Thanks for the info and the encouragement guys.

I used the java program that Ringz suggested and when I flip the image in the N/S plane it looks like how I saw it. Stellarium also had it up to the left.

However I'm really puzzled too- Macavity agreed with me that last night Titan was 'up and to the left' of Saturn but to get that with the Java program I had to flip the image both ways. The confusion is, I saw it 'up to the right' and reversed it in the vertical plane and it was fine. Why do I have to flip it in both planes to get it right in the Java app?

Peace and Clear Skies.

Becky.