Meade Instruments Infinity 70AZ - Manual (Page 9)

a solar system. Our Sun, by the way, is a
single, yellow dwarf star. It is average as far
as stars go and is a middle aged star.
Beyond the planets are clouds of comets, icy
planetoids and other debris left over from the
birth of our sun. Recently astronomers have
found large objects in this area and they may
increase the number of planets in our solar
system.
The four planets closest to the Sun are rocky
and are called the inner planets. Mercury,
Venus, Earth and Mars comprise the inner
planets. Venus and Mars can be easily seen
in your telescope.
Venus is seen before dawn or after sunset,
because it is close to the Sun. You can ob-
serve Venus going through crescent phases.
But you cannot see any surface detail on
Venus because it has a very thick atmo-
sphere of gas.
When Mars is close to the Earth, you can
see some details on Mars, and sometimes
even Mars’ polar caps. But quite often, Mars
is further away and just appears as a red dot
with some dark lines crisscrossing it.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
comprise the outer planets. These planets,
except for Pluto, are made mostly of gases
and are sometimes called gas giants. If they
had grown much bigger, they may have be-
come 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 astrono-
mer 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 Jovi-
an 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 anoth-
er 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. 5 ), 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
7
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.