Saturn and Five of its Moons

February 28, 2013

Saturn and Five of its Moons

Photographer: John Chumack; John’s Web site
Summary Authors: John Chumack; Jim Foster

The image above showing softly colored Saturn and five of its moons was taken in the early hours of February 9, 2013, from my backyard in Dayton, Ohio. Despite the brutally cold conditions, I managed to get several shots of the Ringed Planet plus Titan, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, and Dione. To give a sense of Saturn’s immense size, Titan with a diameter of roughly 3,200 mi (5,150 km) is the second largest moon in the solar system and is even bigger than Mercury – having a diameter of approximately 3,032 mi or (4,878 km). Saturn has over 60 moons, 53 are named.

Photo details: 10 inch Meade LX200 SCT telescope and DMK 21AF04 fire-wire Camera; Astronomik RGB; 2x Barlow lens; 15 frames per second; 900 frames per channel – 2,700 frames total; stacked in Registax 6. Photo taken at 05:40 EST.