Shadow transits on Saturn

Hey everyone,

Last Friday, April 25th, I set up my 8" newt and 7" mak in the driveway hoping to decide which to take out to Joshua Tree the following weekend. Saturn was high in the sky so I made it my test target for the evening. In both scopes I noticed Rhea and Tethys very close to the planets north side. I wasn't sure which moons I was seeing so today I checked them out via my Starry Night software.

What I was surprised to see was that sometime that evening both Tethys and Janus had their shadows transit Saturn's northern hemisphere (Janus' shadow was probably hidden by Saturn's rings) and in fact shadow transits seem pretty common occurrences these last few weeks.

My question: Is anybody here watching these transits? Are they visible in medium sized telescopes? I had the 8" cranked to 400X with a 3mm Radian and the 7" had an 11mm T6 (242X) but did not notice any shadows. But then I wasn't looking for them either instead concentrating on ring features and cloud bands in the southern hemisphere.

Tomorrow morning at 5AM PDT both Enceladyus (magnitude 11.6) and its shadow begin a transit.

I just love this hobby!

Jerry

Sounds pretty cool, Jerry!
Funny you should mention those two moons.
The last time (April 4) I was out at Lockwood Valley,
the seeing was exceptionally good (despite the CSC predictions),
so I popped in a 3mm Radian (602x) for an up close and personal view of the Queen of Planets.
Aside from the crisp ring detail, I noticed a sharp, distinct moon
very near the disc, but just under the rings (in my reflector).
As I studied that, I noticed a little pimple hanging off the bottom edge of the rings.
I called my favorite observing buddy over to look and he spotted it too,
and quickly consulted his Starry Night program. I'm glad he was equipped.
Tethys was the easy one and, lo and behold, Janus was the pimple.
A matter of good timing on a night of exceptional seeing. Right Floyd?
Linton