Cassini Division - ???

I have been viewing Saturn every time it's been in the sky since xmas 2006, and I have to say the first time you see her it blows your mind. I actually stood back from the eyepiece and just laughed with glee the first time i saw the rings! Anyhow, I was reading about Saturn in various magazines and books and I noted that with even a small aperture scope the thin dividing line in the rings - the Cassini division - could be seen.

At first I thought my 4.5" reflector was too small to see it, so fair enough. But now I have a 6" and I still have never once seen the division! Is this normal? Would I need a bigger aperture? In short: what's da story?

: : :

Hi Jose

Seeing the Cassini depends on two things
The first beeing the seeing, you need a night when the atmosphere is steady and secondly and perhaps even more important is to ensure your scope is properly collimated.

I have never used a 6" but like you said it should be easy

José,
I have to tell you,
The first time I saw Saturn through a scope was last year
and I had a similar reaction.

Through my first 'serious' scope (an ETX-125) ,
on the night
I punched in the goto and off she slewed....
I could see Saturn with the naked eye....
Just looked like a big bright star...
With my Binos...maybe, just maybe I could see a moon or two!

Then I put my eye to the eyepiece as the scope was still slewing.,,,,,
then, into the view slides....
what I can only describe as an apparition.
I can remember shouting out, quite loudly,.. ''HOLY S@&T!"


But like you no Cassini division.
It took me some time and a whole lot of luck to see that.
You have to have pretty good if not great 'seeing' to see it through a
small scope.
I've photographed it a few times and while the pics are nice they
still don't give a good impression of what you see visually.

Is your scope a 6'' reflector?

Hi Jose

If the seeing isn't very good it is hard to see. Make sure your optics are well collimated firstly. I have struggled to see it in an 11" at times in poor seeing but it is easy to photograph with a webcam even if it is hard to see visually.

With good seeing I have seen it with a 6" reflector many times. It was not a case of seeing what you want to see, it was simply visible. The next size down is a 70mm refractor and 73mm reflector that I have, and I cnnot recall seeing the division in those.

Check your scopes collimation.
www.earlham.edu/~rodrimi/Collimating%20Newtonian%20Optics.htm

If the seeing is bad, (Saturn is all fuzzy or bouncing all over the place), then forget it.
Aperture is not very important here, I've seen it in a 60mm refractor, but it is a matter of expectations, make sure you know exactly what to look for.
The rings closing doesn't help, they were much more prominent last year and 2 years ago.