A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - satellites of Saturn in 1875

 Academy, Saturday 17^th July 1875

Satellites of Saturn.—ln the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 2043, Mr. Marth gives an ephemeris of the satellites of Saturn, which will greatly facilitate observations of these objects, as they are very liable to be confused with small stars in the neighbourhood.

There is considerable uncertainty about the positions of the innermost satellite Mimas and the outermost lapetus, and no ephemeris is given for Hyperion, the last discovered, as trustworthy observations are wanting for this satellite. The places of the other five are tolerably correct, but observations are much wanted of this extremely interesting system about which so little is known, the mutual perturbations of the satellites and the effect of the ring being most important questions, which can only be solved by accumulated observations.

 With the view of facilitating these, Mr, Marth has given the approximate times of conjunction of the several satellites with the planet. Eclipses, occultations, and transits only occur when the earth is nearly in the plane of the ring (every fifteen years), except in the case of Titan, whose orbit is considerably inclined to the ring.

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