Anybody seen Mimas?

[Ben Ritchie]

Just been out observing Saturn with the 12" dob and the 5 and 10mm XWs, high haze but good seeing. Six moons were clearly visible including a nice compact group of Tethys (10.3), Dione (10.5) and Enceladus (11.8 but very clear). Rhea was on the other side of the planet, harder than normal due to its close proximity to Saturn, while Iapetus and Titan were far out and easy to identify.

After a while, I wondered about Mimas and Hyperion. The latter (mag 14?) was well placed close to the trio of Tethys et al. but completely invisible, even though I knew exactly where to look. Not a hint of anything there with or without averted vision. Mimas, on the other hand, goes down as a 'possible' - it too was close to the trio which made it easy to know where to look, but on the ring side close in. On a couple of occasions I thought I might have it, especially given the clarity of Enceladus, but just not quite sure.

So, anybody else bagged 'number 7'? I'd be interested to know scope/eyepiece/conditions etc... how hard is it?

[Doc]

Taken from my observing report as of 29.3.2009

Rounded of the night with Saturn. By now facing south and at 44 degrees it showed alot of colour annd banding and I thought I could at times see a slight gap in the rings at the ends. The moons I observed going from right to left were Hyperion, Rhea, Tethys, Encelade, Dione, Titan and lepetus. Hyperion was hit and miss only observable with averted vision and appeared only in glimpses of good seeing as it is mag 14.2. Mimas was inside the orb of Saturn so did not see this one. One fantastic sight was Tethys, it was within seconds of the end of Saturn rings and made a fantastic sight.

I have also seen Mimas but on other nights so know it is possible. So I bagged 7 moons and if Mimas was not transiting at the time would have seen 8.

Scope used was 16" dob with the 12.5 ortho eyepiece.

[Izar]

Last night while using a Takahashi TSA-102, I bagged 6 moons,

one of which was Mimas, which was sat just above the rings.