Events of Saturn's Satellites Rhea and Titan

Saturn's satellites are a lot fainter than the four Galilean satellites of Jupiter, only eclipses of the two brightest, Titan (magnitude 8.6) and Rhea (magnitude 9.9) are likely to be observable through a small telescope. The inner satellites are fainter still and eclipses will occur close to Saturn's disk, making them difficult events.

Eclipses of Rhea start in July 2008 and then occur at intervals of approximately 4.5 days. Those of Titan, which is considerably further from Saturn than Rhea, do not start until 2009. The table shows the times of eclipses of Rhea during 2008. All eclipses are shown, whether they are visible from New Zealand or not.

The first few occur with Rhea a little to the south of Saturn so both the disappearance and reappearance of Rhea are visible. In fact by July, Saturn is getting close to conjunction so is low in the evening sky setting mid evening. As a result only the first eclipse on July 5 is likely to be observable from New Zealand, and Saturn will be getting low for that event. Apart from that event, New Zealand observers will have to wait until 2009 to see any eclipses of Rhea.

Saturn is at conjunction with the Sun on September 4 and will be too close to the Sun for observation about a month either side of that date. After conjunction only the disappearance of Rhea into eclipse will be visible from the Earth, the reappearance takes place while Rhea is occulted by Saturn. In the table of events, the times of occultation reappearance are shown, shaded in grey. It is not likely this event would be visible in a small telescope against the bright limb of the planet.