Saturn's moon utility

[blinky]

I found this today while surfing around. It's a javascript utility that shows the current position of the moon's of Saturn. It can be flipped/rotated to show what you will actaully see through your telescope.

http://skytonight.com/observing/objects/javascript/3308506.html#

[geppetto]

Not seen that one before

Thanks for the heads up

[blinky]

'course the tricky thing for me is actually finding Saturn never mind the bl00dy moons

[geoff_k]

I used to use a program called SatSat (I think). However, I have now gone all posh and look them up on Starry Night.

Can't remember the site I got it from but if you want I can e-mail you the zip file. It's very easy to use.

Actually, I can remember - here is the link - fifth item down.

http://www.midnightkite.com/dansoftware.html

Geoff

[FLO]

Worth noting that unless the software uses 3d physics that includes shadow projection, the results can be misleading.

Starry Night uses 3D physics so will show when a moon appears from and disappears into the planets shadow.

The three pix show Jupiter's nearest Moon Io as it vanishes into shadow. When observing, it will appear to dim, then disappear over a 4 min' 40 sec period. Others Moons, further out from the Planet can take 30+ minutes to appear from the shadow - StarryNight will show this (precisely) whereas regular 2D software will not, leaving you scratching your head wondering where why you can't see it.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/products.php?cat=72