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. On
nights of very steady seeing you may be able
to see a black opening in the rings, known as
the Cassini band.
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
11
the more details you will be able to see.
One of the most fascinating sights of Jupiter
are its moons. The four largest moons
are called the Galilean moons, after the
astronomer Galileo, who observed them for
the first time. If you’ve never watched the
Galilean moons in your telescope before,
you’re missing a real treat! Each night, the
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 (Fig. 6), 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.
Fig. 6
Jupiter and it’s Galilean Moons
(c) nimax GmbH
