Titan?

[steveyschoice]

So I had my second session last night and how brilliant it was with the crystal clear skies! The so called "supermoon" was spectacular last night. The detail round the limb was amazing and seeing Tycho properly was pretty cool.

I finally saw saturn for the first time last night and it blew me away. I impressed even myself by finding it in my finderscope almost instantly and seeing those rings as you increase the mag is epic. Quite small, but the thought of seeing this planet all that distance away with my own eyes was what really did it for me. I think I could make out the shadow of the rings on the surface too.

One thing I wasn't sure of was if I was seeing titan. There was a pinprick of light constantly to the left of saturn, which I initially though was titan. Then I began to wonder because it seemed quite a long way away from saturn relative to its size and didn't seem to be moving around saturn. Was this just a star?

[Ursa Major]

Yes that waas titan you were seeing. i just checked on stellarium. remember that titan is actually to the right of the planet because you scope is a reflector. it waas cloudy here last night so couldnt see super moon:(

[lukebl]

... and didn't seem to be moving around saturn. Was this just a star?

It probably was Titan. How fast did you expect it to move? Titan takes 16 days to orbit Saturn, so you'd have to watch for a pretty long time to notice any movement!

[callisto]

In future if you want to check the moons, just go on Sky & Telescope's website, click on the icon for Saturns moons, Then click on the reflector view and you will see it as viewed through your'e scope .

[Ad Astra]

You didn't say what scope you were using - It is certainly possible to pick up Titan in a scope as small as 100 mm aperture, and a 150mm dob shows it very nicely.

If you move up to an 8", and you can get over 150x, you can make out several of Saturn's big moons. Dione, Tethys and Rhea are all around 1000 km, and easy enough to see with this size scope. Iapetus is also more difficult because its orbit so far from Saturn that it is sometimes very far from Saturn and actually well out of the field of view - but well within the optical grasp of a 200 mm scope.

Enceladus and Mimas are more difficult because although they are very reflective and bright, they are also smaller than the rest (about 500 km wide compared to about 1200 km for the average of the others - Titan is the elephant in the room at 5100 km wide.) These require a 250 mm scope or so to capture. Tiny Hyperion at 300 km has always eluded me - but the biggest scope I get to use on any kind of a regular basis is a C-11, and I've never bagged this one.

Hunting moons is one of the great pleasures of planetary observing. Welcome to the club!

Dan

[Ursa Major]

The only moons i have seen with my 5 inch reflector have been Titan and surprisingly Iapetus. Although it is no one of the top four brightest moons of saturn, its distance from the planet makes it easier (for me) to pick up because the reduction in glare from saturn.

[John]

This Java applet shows you the positions of Saturns brighter moons and adjusts for a newtonian or refractor / SCT / mak view:

SkyandTelescope.com - Planets - Saturn's Moons Javascript Utility

The most I have seen is 6 with my 10" scope. My 4" refractor will show 4 on a good night - Titan, Tethys, Dione and Rhea. Enceladus is a tough spot but rewarding when you do as it's such a small world, so far away.

[Dellis]

I spent an hour or so observing Saturn on Friday night and could see four moons Titan, Tethys, Dione & Rhea. Titan was constantly in view with the other three being more difficult to resolve. My scope is a Celestron 8" SCT.

Dave

[steveyschoice]

Thanks for the help guys. That java app is great and I was definitely seeing Titan. Couldn't make out any other moons, something to look forward to next time! Perhaps the moon was too bright to make out any others?

[John]

....Perhaps the moon was too bright to make out any others?

That would have been the case last night - Titan is 8th magnitude, the rest fainter so moonlight would have made them more challenging than usual to see (and they are not by any means always easy targets anyway ).