Did I just see uranus?

[Charlie_132]

I think I may of just found Uranus after a very frustrating night with the clouds always being in the spot I wanted to look at.

Anyway, I notices on Stellarium it had Alt/Az numbers in degrees.

Then I figured out that if i set the arrow to say 26degrees then scan in the rough area and look through the finder I may find it.

I tested it with m31, the degree was 70, so I put the arrow to that and then looked in the finder scope and m31 was there.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense.

Basically I think that I have a alt/az mount. Stellarium gives you the co ordinants of objects like +27, then if you look in the right section of sky the object should be there?

This is the worse thing I have ever written. Wonder how many people I will confuse....

Anyway IF it was Uranus, there was a bright red star at the top right  in this shape / then a faint  one at the bottom left that loked pale blue. Was that Uranus?

[ronin]

What colour was "Uranus" ?

Not sure about the values you entered, something says that they are positions based on UTC and we are not running UTC at present. As best I can find Stellarium does not easily tell that the time it is using is BST not UTC - your PC just has a time and if it is BST or UTC is not I think passed to Stellarium. Have a suspicion that things may be out by 15 degrees.

Main question is what colour was "Uranus" ?

[Paul M]

Alt Az coordinates should work in principal for easier objects, if only to get you within the right search area.

It sounds like you have your mount set up correctly for your method to have worked on the Andromeda Galaxy, although it is a big object and very forgiving of positioning errors.

I didn't think Alt Az mounts generally came with setting circles. Are you using an Equatorial mount in Alt Az?

Setting circles are notoriously inaccurate on smaller mounts (anything less than research grade) to the point of being useless so you have done well if indeed you have succeeded.

The best way to confirm your sighting is to star hop from the bottom left star of Square of Pegasus through Pisces and down to Uranus. Perhaps using binoculars.

Uranus is quite distinct with higher magnification. A definite blue/green disc is visible.

You don't say what scope you have or what magnification you were using. Or whether you have a inverted field of view. So the field stars you mention aren't immediately obvious in Stellarium.

Remember too that Alt Az coordinates are accurate only for the clock time shown on Stellarium. After a while and depending on magnification you will need to check back with Stellarium for the coordinates correct at that time.

[Charlie_132]

Well I was using a 127 mak, and stellarium co ordinants was right for andromeda, plesedies(how ever they're spelt) it was also right for a coiple of other random stars I looked at.

I only had a 25mm ep in thoug.

The colour of what could of been uranus was sort of pale greeny blue when I looked at it. It looked like a brighter star but clearly not a star if that makes sense.

There was a bright red star to the top right of it diagonally. Uranus was at the bottom left of it. Bnoth visible in the 9x50 finder. Uranus was the dimmer of the two

[Charlie_132]

Forgot to add - it was the dimmer of the two in the finder scope, but then a blue green colour when viewed in the 25mm ep

[ghostdance]

Hi Charlie.

Is it possible that the 'red' star is Delta Pisces? That is diagonally above right of Uranus from what I can see in the mobile app of Stellarium, which doesn't have the ocular view so can't check if verifiable using a 25mm ep. As you have RACI finder 9×50 I would assume it was Delta Pisces of you were in the right area....?

[Dave In Vermont]

Yes, and that would be Algenib at magnitude 2.83. In Pegasus. My guess is you found it! Congratulations.

Clear Skies,

Dave

[ronin]

Pale greeny blue sounds like Uranus, more blue and it would have been like Neptune.. :grin:

Since green in a star colour is a bit odd it means it almost certainly had to have been Uranus.

Right place, right colour.

[Stu]

Does this make sense?

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sirius Starwatcher]

I am struggling to use stellarium to its full potential and am leaning towards the I phone app star walk by ESO. I used this app last night and managed to see both Neptune and Uranus

[Charlie_132]

Thanks for all the replies

Yeah I'm pretty sure it was uranus going by that photo!

Now I am struggling with what tripod to upgrade to, as my current set up is a bit of a joke. I'll expand on that soon though.......

[NotSoSuperNova]

Well done guys for keeping this on topic with such an.... enticing question. I was expecting mischief when looking through the answers.

[timetraveler3]

I found it the other night by star hopping off Pegasus after looking at Stellarium. I was using a 10 inch dob and I was quite excited when I found it!  The color was right and it was clearly not a star and of course right where it was supposed to be.   I could not find Neptune though even after many tries................oh well. next time maybe.

[Charlie_132]

Haha. It did surprise me when I had no funny answers.

I managed to see uranus friday night/sat morning in a 14inch telescope at x250

I took a photo on my mobile phone, I'll upload it at some point