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Old 20-07-2018, 08:50 AM
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Allan
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 937
I spent time with Saturn's moons in May. I had the same list of 9 moons that are visually possible to observe. Seems the other 53 moons were discovered photographically by the large professional observatories or space craft.

I managed to see the 8 brightest ones in the 32". Mimas was the only challenge and I had to wait an hour for it to swing around into a more favourable position away from the rings. Phoebe was no where to be seen using Sky Safari 6 with the enhanced star catalogue showing stars to magnitude 17.

I've since discovered Sky Safari doesn't plot Phoebe nor the faint outer Jupiter moons in their correct position. A check of the Minor Planet Centre data saw accurate data for Phoebe which I plotted on the SS6 star field.

Come June I ran the observation again and quickly saw the 8 moons from the previous month. Then it was off to Phoebe. After some quick star orientation I saw the faint little moon where the MPC had plotted it. I followed it for an hour and saw it move west against the background star field. It was moderately faint at magnitude 16.6, but I was able to hold it with direct vision.

I've not yet heard from anyone else who has seen Phoebe. If you have a large enough scope it's a nice challenge and a buzz when you find the little moon.
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