Saturn last night

[blinky]

I was out last night around 9:30pm and was very dissapointed with the view of Saturn.. I occasionally got a brief glimse of Cassini division but no detail at all on the planet. Think I may have seen a moon or two, I take it they just look like faint stars, or do you see them as globes as well? I was using an 8" OrionOptics (UK) with my new 5mm Ortho. TBH the view was very sharp even with the 5mm, something that has never really happened with the cheap Japanese Plossl I used before so I suppose I can take something from last night!

[Greg]

Steve and I were out the other night viewing Saturn.

We could see the Cassini Division and moons but not much else, I think that the atmospheric coditions at the moment are to blame.

Warm damp evenings don't do our hobbie any good

[blinky]

Are the moons like tiny stars, very faint or can they be seen as globes? It would be nice to say I have seen the moons, I like bragging to my non astro mates (although I am now marked as a total anorak!)

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Just like stars mate. You can see the Jupiter ones with a pair of 10X50 Bins, they're easy, but they are just dots still even at high Mag.

Captain Chaos

[blinky]

Cheers once again CC

[geoff_k]

Blinky

This image I took last year with a 10 inch reflector at prime focus shows you roughly what you will see through a webcam. The planet is deliberately over-exposed to bring them out. You won't see as much visually. Mimas as shown in the image is only about 400 km across and is difficult to spot as it tends to orbit very near to the ring plane.

As far as Jupiter is concerned, the Galilean moons are much bigger, nearer and brighter. With a large aperture scope and good seeing, you can make Ganymede out as more than just a dot for example. I have seen amateur images of Ganymede which show surface detail.

Wear your anorak with pride. You need it in this weather.

Geoff

[The Warthog]

With my 6", I have seen as many as three Saturnian moons. The Jovian moons show slight differences in colouration and brightness, but they all look like little stars.