Meade Infinity 80mm User Manual - Page 10

had grown much bigger, they may have become stars. Pluto is made mostly of 8 ice. Jupiter is quite interesting to observe. You can see bands across the face of Jupiter. The more time you spend observing these bands, 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. 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 Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversible damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun. Do not look through the telescope as it is moving. Fig. 6 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.