Meade Instruments Infinity 80, 90 and 102mm Refractor - Manual (Page 10)

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 posi-
tions of the moons each night is an excellent
exercise for novice astronomers.
Any small telescope can see the four Gal-
ilean 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
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.
Fig. 6
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.
had grown much bigger, they may have
become stars. Pluto is made mostly of
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 as-
tronomer Galileo, who observed them for
the first time. If you’ve never watched the
Galilean moons in your telescope before,
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