Quote:
Originally posted by iceman
Hi guys.
I saw 8 of Saturns moons, unless one or 2 were background stars.. will have to check starry nights. and it looked like we could see a 5th moon of Jupiter, again unless it was a background star.
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Mike,
I mentioned last night that I saw 6 Saturnian moons
Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion and Iapetus are all visible in "large" aperture amateur instruments (8).
Mimas and Hyperion are very small and extremely difficult to observe in "smaller" amateur telescopes.
I didn't observe Saturn over a long enough time period to watch them move across the field and confirm that they were in fact field stars.
I am still sticking with 6 and 2 field stars, but I have been wrong before

.
Apart from the 4 galilean moons the next most easily visible is Amalthea which is well beyond a 10" scope, or at least with my eyes it is
The (5th) Jovian Satellite happily moved across the orbital plane of the other 4 satellites as the night wore on, confirming that it was of non solar system origins.
A very enjoyable evening spent with a great group of guys and looking forward to the next event on 7th May, 2004. Thanks also to Anthony and his boss for providing a great site.
CS-John B