[bratislav (Bratislav)]

Can I ask what was the magnification used when supposedly seeing Encke?

For anything less than about 600x you can frankly forget it.

For the record, I have tried many times in all sorts of telescopes to see Encke, and smallest so far is 11". This is about only 45 years of observing ... and counting

BTW, I have had extensive conversations about Encke/Keeler with many experienced observers, among them late Thomas Back who was eagle-eyed observer and had access to some of the best telescopes ever made (and best seeing conditions). His claim of seeing Encke with his (exceptional) 7" AstroPhysics refractor (likely to be better planetary scope by quite a margin than 7 and 8 inch instruments in question) was quickly retracted after the delivery of his 20" (Zambuto mirrored) Dob, and seeing it for real. It took initially 1000x, then down to 550x, and the night of exceptional seeing in Florida (Pickering 9+, stationary rings).

I've also tried countless times with my own excellent home made 7" Mak (and only during nights that could sustain 500+ magnifications), with no luck. Same goes for my own (also home made) low obstruction 8" (I could see detail on Ganymede with that!), no Encke. Both scopes resolve subarcsecond doubles and easily show Alpine valley rille and wealth of low contrast detail on Jupiter. And I had them for decades (still own the Mak).

The only credible sub 10" observation that I can relate to is another very experienced observer using 9" Clark refractor. That would be about the smallest I can believe.

So color me extremely skeptical about seeing it in a 7" Mak or 8" SCT.

PS the night I saw Encke in 11" I took the video recording as well. I still keep the raws, and playing back the recording one can actually see Encke coming and going on screen (just like in eyepiece). But Saturn on that recording's playback is nearly 5" across on my screen, subtending more than 12 degrees, which makes it much easier to see - that is equivalent of over 1000x in the eyepiece!!!).
What is remarkable about that night's seeing (recording was done about an hour before sunrise on 19th of March 2014) is that Saturn was always completely stationary and only occasionally wavered a bit (not enough to affect Cassini which was always visible) at 750x. The globe of Saturn was also visible through the Cassini 90+ % of the time. Seeing like that only happens a few times in one's lifetime. Alas, just one avi is nearly 4 gigabytes so I can't share ... but I can show you completed color pic

Correction - the observation and recording actually occurred on the morning of March 20th. I started imaging Mars earlier, hence folder was labeled as 19th