Re: Report
Yes,Del, even more powerful telescopes (the 8 inches ones) were unable to catch M1.
The only chance would have been by taking a CCD picture with a several minutes exposure, then overepose Saturn to "eventually" see M1 appear. (Perhaps even a device to hide Saturn from the view would help, but Saturn far from being circular, it would be quite tricky!).
The Moon occulting Saturn, well I'm afraid not before a number of years!
I've read it somewhere but didn't think of remembering how many...Quite long!
Regards,
Raoul