Encke minima and division

Hi,

Have many people here seen either the Encke minima or division?
I was observing with my LX90 last night and spent a couple of hours looking at Saturn. The air was fairly steady and had no problem knocking the power up to 318x. The Cassini division was clearly visible as a thin black line running the entire way around the rings except for the interruption of the southern pole. After trying for about 2 hrs, I managed to see fleeting glimpses of a grey portion to the outer ring at each ansae. I tried a higher power of 419x and again saw the same thing at each extremity of the rings. Only appeared for tiny fractions of a second before disappearing again. Tried a ridiculous 635x but image was getting fuzzy at that stage however I could still see all of the cassini division but any hope of seeing other detail on the outer ring was lost.
What I saw appeared between the Cassini division and the outer edge of the rings. I didn't see it as a jet black void like the Cassini division but more as a small length of a narrow grey band with no clearly defined edge. Almost like a narrow patch of grey rather than a distinct black region with clearly defined edges. Peronally I reckon it was the Encke Minima - anyone able to confirm?

Michael

Michael,
On a numbe of nights, I did have fleeting glimpses of what looked like a dark/gray line on the left/roght edges of the rings, (using a 6.4mm ep ==> 468x), I suppose this was the encke division, its a tought object in anyones book to catch, I wish I had some easy way of blocking the glare from the planets disk, maybe this would make it easier to see???

Dave,
As it was ur 12" you were using u may very well have seen the division. However, next time u look, check if you can see both the division AND the minima - a greyish band next to the division. If u see both, then u definetly have seen the division. If u see just one, it may just the minima u are looking at. These two articles are well worth reading:
home.fiam.net/ericj/encke.html
www.weatherman.com/saturndk.htm
What do u think?

Michael

Michael,
I was using the 12" at those occasions.
I didnt see a continuous encke division all around the ring, but an almost unimaginabley narrow slither of a faint line near the very edge (almost on the edge) of both rings, so it probabilty wasnt the minima, it might have been there, but i didnt notice, Will look for it next time.