Thread: Saturn's moons
View Single Post
  #10  
Old 09-10-2020, 08:50 PM
Slawomir's Avatar
Slawomir (Suavi)
Registered User

Slawomir is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: North Queensland
Posts: 3,240
Hi all,

Reporting that all five could be confidently seen again tonight. Titan was very easy to spot (mag 9.3), then Rhea (mag 10.5), followed by a little bit harder to spot Dione (mag 11.3) and Tethys (mag 11.1) because the last two were the closest to Saturn. A more distant from Saturn Iapetus (mag 11.8) became more obvious once the skies got darker. Enceladus (mag 12.7) was beyond my reach again.

This time I also tried a borrowed Lunt zoom 7.2-21.5 mm eyepiece and was surprised that it was quite sharp and comfortable to use, so I could eventually and with some effort and patience see all 5 at maximum magnification with this zoom eyepiece. But switching to 5mm Delite as well as 3.5mm Delos made seeing the 5 moons easier, probably because background with those two was significantly darker.

I also tried 2x TV Barlow with 5mm Delite and 3.5mm Delos, and this made seeing Iapetus somehow easier, but, at the same time the moons that were very close to Saturn were nearly impossible to see when barlowed.

All in all, it has been fun spotting the moons around Saturn with my 105mm fast refractor and I think I learnt a thing or two during the past week or so of observing Saturn more systematically.
Reply With Quote