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and are sometimes called gas giants. If they
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 detail 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. 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 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.
Fig. 5
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.
7
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