Enceladus at last.

[chiltonstar]

I have been looking for Enceladus all through this Saturn season, without success until now!

Last night, the conditions were right, Saturn was beautifully clear, Cassini razor sharp and the relatively good transparency reduced the haze around the planet and made the colours of the disk much richer creamy-orange. Also, Enceladus (mag 12.3) was due W of Saturn in a favourable spot. Moving Saturn out of the field to the E with the SkyTee2 slomo knob, and then allowing it to drift back into the field of view showed Dione (mag 10.9) first as a bright pinpoint, then shortly after and just before Saturn itself appeared, the fainter little point of light of Enceladus itself. It was bright enough to be direct vision, although with Saturn in the field of view, it wasn't visible even with averted vision. I repeated this a few times before going on to look for as many other moons as I could see.

The scope was my 180 Mak, EP a 10mm Baader Ortho (x270), with the ADC in place.

SkySafari screenshot adjusted to match the eyepiece view (laterally reversed).

Chris

Edited August 3, 2019 by chiltonstar

[Geoff Barnes]

Well done Chris, Enceladus is a tough target alright. I've seen it a few times when the seeing has been excellent with my 12 inch Dob. but more often than not it's invisible. I must try your technique of getting Saturn out of the way to make things easier!

[Mark at Beaufort]

Great catch Chris especially when you consider Saturn's low current height above the horizon. Never seen Enceladus so your report gives me hope with the 12" Dob.

[Paul73]

It is amazing to think that we can see moons over such a vast distance 

Good spot. I struggled with that one with 10”.

Paul

[chiltonstar]

6 hours ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Well done Chris, Enceladus is a tough target alright. I've seen it a few times when the seeing has been excellent with my 12 inch Dob. but more often than not it's invisible. I must try your technique of getting Saturn out of the way to make things easier!

It's the technique I use for fainter secondaries of doubles, and for moons eg of Uranus.

I suspect that now I've seen Enceladus, it will be easier to spot in the future - bit like Sirius B!

Chris

[johnturley]

I've found it fairly easy to spot through my 14 in Newtonian, and previuosly with a 10in, but that was at a time when Saturn was much higher in the sky, and not a its current altitude. It will become easier to spot in coming years as Saturn's rings gradually close and it becomes less bright, and also higher in the sky.

John

[Piero]

Great report! 

Saturn was wonderful last night and the seeing was reasonably good here too. 

Enceladus was visible in my new dob. Nice one!

[chiltonstar]

1 hour ago, Piero said:

Great report! 

Saturn was wonderful last night and the seeing was reasonably good here too. 

Enceladus was visible in my new dob. Nice one!

How big?

Chris

[Piero]

10 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

How big?

Chris

It was just a dot, but I could see it with DV once the scope cooled down properly. I don't know the exact magnification as I used a zoom eyepiece, but this was somewhere between 240x ish and 273x.

[John]

Great report and super result Chris

I have seen Enceladus a few times with my 12 inch dob but not this season, as yet.

I find that a sort of "1000 yard stare" technique coupled with high magnifications works quite well in helping these faint planetary moons to pop into view. Steady seeing and the targets position in relation to its host planet play an important role as well.

Tiny specks of light but they mean quite a lot when you know a little about what you are observing !

 

[bingevader]

21 minutes ago, John said:

I find that a sort of "1000 yard stare" technique

You'll have to enlighten us on that one, please?

Are you related to Paddington?

[John]

11 minutes ago, bingevader said:

You'll have to enlighten us on that one, please?

Are you related to Paddington?

It's a bit like the technique used to view those 3D magic eye pictures - you focus your eye "beyond" the target, so to speak. It's difficult to describe to be honest but I have found that it helps tease out faint point source targets.