Meade Infinity 102, Instruction Manual

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, 

8