Saturns Moons

[DarkerSky]

Took in the beauty of Saturn's moons this evening in my 16" after an intense Mars session. Captured four of them in the same FOV. Rhea was furthest out...a couple of planet ring widths to the East. Dione and Enceladus were next in. Enceladus appeared slightly south of Saturn's equatorial plane, and a bit fainter than Dione. Close into the planet, almost tucked underneath the eastern tip of Saturn's Eastern rings was Tethys.

I did make a quick sketch of the moons in relation to Saturn. Will post up here once I've scanned it into my comp

[yeti monster]

I've just had an hour or more following Saturn across the sky with the 10" SNT-Dob. I soon got used to giving the azimuth just enough of a push to send Saturn back acoss the FOV. I was also able to, finally, use both my 4mm EPs to see which is the better of the two, which turns out to be the Celestron stock one from my 114mm Newt.

I was able to clearly see 3 moons and some contrast in Saturn occasionally.

So, a decent 4 or 5mm EP and a worthwhile Barlow look to be going on the shopping list..........

[cdd2455]

Only 3 moons ( of Saturn ) for me last night, could it be that something bigger than a 12.5 is needed to see more moons?

Best Regards

Carl

[Doc]

Took in the beauty of Saturn's moons this evening in my 16" after an intense Mars session. Captured four of them in the same FOV. Rhea was furthest out...a couple of planet ring widths to the East. Dione and Enceladus were next in. Enceladus appeared slightly south of Saturn's equatorial plane, and a bit fainter than Dione. Close into the planet, almost tucked underneath the eastern tip of Saturn's Eastern rings was Tethys.

I did make a quick sketch of the moons in relation to Saturn. Will post up here once I've scanned it into my comp

DS I love looking at Saturn in my 16" LB as well. A few times I've seen 8 of Saturn's moons so keep looking at see if you can get more.

[DarkerSky]

DS I love looking at Saturn in my 16" LB as well. A few times I've seen 8 of Saturn's moons so keep looking at see if you can get more.

8 moons is very impressive!! It was the first time I have seen Enceladus and Dione last night, and it really was only a 'viewing in passing' as I was trying to pull out details in the equatorial bands before the cloud raced in. My FOV was quite small at Mag x295. Next time I will spend longer looking for them.

I know S&T do a javascript app for the position of the 5 brightest moons. Do you know of any program that shows the positions of the fainter moons for Saturn?

[DarkerSky]

Only 3 moons ( of Saturn ) for me last night, could it be that something bigger than a 12.5 is needed to see more moons?

Best Regards

Carl

I think you'd pick up quite a few with a 12.5". Enceladus, the 5th faintest moon (I think) is around Mag 12. Probably when there is less monnlight around you'd pick up more.

[Doc]

8 moons is very impressive!! It was the first time I have seen Enceladus and Dione last night, and it really was only a 'viewing in passing' as I was trying to pull out details in the equatorial bands before the cloud raced in. My FOV was quite small at Mag x295. Next time I will spend longer looking for them.

I know S&T do a javascript app for the position of the 5 brightest moons. Do you know of any program that shows the positions of the fainter moons for Saturn?

CduC gives you 8 moons, there are times when all eight are visible you just have to be looking at the right time.

[DarkerSky]

Thanks Mick. I didnt realise Cartes could do that...so I just checked my version of Stellarium, and realised that it shows the positions too! D'oh

Confirmed that Rhea, Dione, Enceladus and Tethys were indeed the 4 I saw last night. Didn't realise how distant from my FOV Hyperion and Iapetus were !

Has anyone seen moons transit across Saturn? Looks like Mimas was last night. I have seen plenty of Jupiter moon transits, but never a Saturnian moon transit

Well excited to try and see if I can bag one now..!!