[AZ-Observing] Satellites of Saturn tonight (Wed)

Howdy all;

I had a night of pretty fair seeing on Saturn, I rated it 6 out of 10 on =
the
Pickering scale.  This was in my backyard roll off roof observatory with =
a
Nexstar 11.  I went up to a 10mm LV eyepiece to get to 280X.  Cassini's
division was easy, the crepe ring was seen in the best moments and there =
was
a good view of the equatorial band on the ball of Saturn itself. =20

But the really fascinating display was the fact that there were several
satellites of Saturn close in to the planet.  Three of them, Tethys, =
Dione
and Mimas formed a triangle near the rings.  Tethys and Dione were seen
constantly with direct vision and Mimas was seen about 30% of the time =
and
popped in and out with averted vision.  The two brighter satellites are
about 10th magnitude and Mimas is 12.7, a somewhat difficult object in =
close
to Saturn.  Enceladus was held steady on the other side of Saturn and =
Rhea
was pretty easy further out from the planet.

After a chance to get a good look and take some notes, a wind storm =
started
blowing at about 25 miles per hour and it was time to button up the
observatory and write up what I had seen.  I hope others had a chance to =
see
this interesting alignment of the bright satellites of Saturn.

Clear skies;
Steve Coe

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