Meade Instruments 60AZ-A2 - Manual (Page 10)

Any small t
e
lesc
ope c
an see the f
our
Galil
ean moons of Jupit
er (
Fig. 5
),
plus a f
e
w other
s, but how many
moons does Jupit
er actuall
y hav
e?
No one knows f
or sur
e! Nor ar
e we
sur
e
how many Saturn has either
. At las
t
c
ount, Jupit
er had o
ver 60 moons, and held a
small l
ead o
ver Saturn. Mos
t of these moons
ar
e v
ery small and c
an onl
y be seen with
very lar
ge t
e
lesc
opes.
Pr
obabl
y the mos
t memor
abl
e sight y
ou will
see in y
o
ur t
e
lesc
ope is Saturn. Although y
o
u
may not see many f
eatur
es on the surf
ac
e of
Saturn, its ring s
tructur
e will s
teal y
our
br
eath away
. Y
ou will pr
obabl
y be abl
e t
o
see
a black opening in the rings, known as the Cas
sini band.
Saturn is not the onl
y planet that has rings,
but it is the onl
y set of rings that c
an be
seen with a small t
e
lesc
ope. Jupit
er’
s rings
c
annot be seen fr
om Earth at all—the
V
o
yager spac
ecr
aft disc
o
ve
red the ring aft
er
it pas
sed Jupit
er and l
ook
ed back at it. It
turns out, onl
y with the sunlight shining
thr
ough them, c
an the rings be seen. Ur
anus
and Neptune also hav
e f
aint rings.
Optional c
o
lor filt
er
s help bring out det
ail
and c
ontr
as
t of the planets. Meade off
er
s a
line of ine
xpensiv
e c
o
lor filt
er
s.
What’
s Ne
xt? Be
y
ond the Solar Sys
tem
:
Onc
e y
o
u hav
e
observ
ed our own sys
tem of
planets, it’
s time t
o
r
eall
y tr
av
el f
ar fr
om
home and l
ook at s
tar
s and other objects.
You c
an observ
e thousands of s
tar
s with
your t
e
lesc
ope. At fir
s
t, y
ou may think s
tar
s
ar
e jus
t pinpoints of light and ar
en’t v
ery
int
er
es
ting. But l
ook again. Ther
e is much
inf
ormation that is r
e
veal
ed in s
tar
s.
The fir
s
t thing y
ou will notic
e is that not all
8
s
tar
s ar
e the same c
o
lo
rs. See if y
ou c
an find
blue, or
ange, y
ell
o
w, whit
e and r
ed s
tar
s.
The c
o
lor of s
tar
s sometimes c
an t
ell y
o
u
about the age of a s
tar and the t
emper
atur
e
that the
y burn at.
Other s
tar
s t
o
l
ook f
or ar
e multipl
e s
tar
s.
V
ery oft
en, y
ou c
an find doubl
e (or binary)
s
tar
s, s
tar
s that ar
e v
ery cl
ose t
ogether
.
These s
tar
s orbit each other
. What do y
o
u
notic
e about these s
tar
s? Ar
e the
y diff
er
ent
c
o
lo
rs? Does one seem bright
er than the
other? Almos
t all the s
tar
s y
ou c
an see in the sky
ar
e part of our galaxy
. A galaxy is a lar
ge Fig. 5
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