16
moons appear in different positions around the
Jovian sky. This is sometimes called the Galilean
dance. On any given night, you might be able to
see the shadow of a moon on the face of Jupiter,
see one moon eclipse another or even see a moon
emerge from behind Jupiter’s giant disk. Drawing
the positions of the moons each night is an excellent
exercise for novice astronomers.
Any small telescope can see the four Galilean
moons of Jupiter, plus a few others, but how many
moons does Jupiter actually have? No one knows
for sure! Nor are we sure how many Saturn has
either. At last count, Jupiter had over 60 moons,
and held a small lead over Saturn. Most of these
moons are very small and can only be seen with
very large telescopes.
Probably the most memorable sight you will see
in your telescope is Saturn. Although you may
not see many features on the surface of Saturn,
its ring structure will steal your breath away. You
will probably be able to see a black opening in the
rings, known as the Cassini division.
Saturn is not the only planet that has rings, but it is
the only set of rings that can be seen with a small
telescope. Jupiter’s rings cannot be seen from
Earth at all—the Voyager spacecraft discovered
the ring after it passed Jupiter and looked back at
it. It turns out, only with the sunlight shining through
them, can the rings be seen. Uranus and Neptune
also have faint rings.
Optional color filters help bring out detail and
contrast of the planets. Meade offers a line of
inexpensive color filters.
What’s Next? Beyond the Solar System: Once
you have observed our own system of planets, it’s
time to really travel far from home and look at stars
and other objects.
You can observe thousands of stars with your
telescope. At first, you may think stars are just
pinpoints of light and aren’t very interesting. But
look again. There is much information that is
revealed in stars.
The first thing you will notice is that not all stars are
the same colors. See if you can find blue, orange,
yellow, white and red stars. The color of stars
sometimes can tell you about the age of a star and
the temperature that they burn at.
Other stars to look for are multiple stars. Very
often, you can find double (or binary) stars, stars
that are very close together. These stars orbit each
other. What do you notice about these stars? Are
they different colors? Does one seem brighter than
the other?
Almost all the stars you can see in the sky are part
of our galaxy. A galaxy is a large grouping of stars,
containing millions or even billions of stars. Some
galaxies form a spiral (like our galaxy, the Milky
Way) and other galaxies look more like a large
football and are called elliptical galaxies. There are
many galaxies that are irregularly shaped and are
thought to have been pulled apart because they
passed too close to—or even through—a larger
galaxy.
You may be able to see the Andromeda galaxy and
several others in your telescope. They will appear
as small, fuzzy clouds.
You will also be able to see some nebula with
your scope. Nebula means cloud. Most nebula
are clouds of gas. The two easiest to see in the
Northern Hemisphere are the Orion nebula during
the winter and the Trifid nebula during the summer.
These are large clouds of gas in which new stars
are being born. Some nebula are the remains
of stars exploding. These explosions are called
supernovas.
When you become an advanced observer you can
look for other types of objects such as asteroids,
planetary nebula and globular clusters. And if
you’re lucky, every so often a bright comet appears
in the sky, presenting an unforgettable sight.
