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Finding Uranus


Taloniv

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So my 15mm Gold Line and my 2x Barlow arrive tomorrow. This will give me a range of 5mm 7.5mm 10mm 12.5mm 15mm and 25mm. I'd like to take a crack at seeing Uranus tomorrow as I know it's visible now as is Neptune.

Any tips to finding these two along with star hops to make? I have my 8 inch Dob and I think that should atleast show me the disk right?

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Apparently (and confirmed by looking at Stellarium after I had packed up, humph! ) last night it was very near the moon and should have been easy to hop to up - I didn't get my kit back out as I thought it would have been washed out by the bright moon, being so close. obviously not.

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I've seen Uranus when it's been closer to the Moon than it was last night. Back then it was just half a degree off the Lunar limb. The brightly lit Lunar surface seemed to accentuate the blue colour of Uranus interestingly. It was a lovely sight at around 200x :smiley:

I had a quick look at the planet last night but the seeing was not terribly steady here so I didn't get my larger scope out. With a 12" scope I've found it possible to (just about) see a couple of Uraniun moons at high magnifications. These are really faint though so the moonlight would have drowned them out last night.

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It is certainly a good target at the moment due to its relative proximity to opposition. The disc is clearly visible. There are few stars in that region of the sky though. I'm afraid I choose the easy life and just use my GoTo. Neptune too shows a disc. I love comparing the colours. Depending upon seeing conditions they can look very similar or quite different. My 9.25 SCT and a 10mm BH E P are in their element with these targets once cooled.

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.... I love comparing the colours. Depending upon seeing conditions they can look very similar or quite different....

It would be great to catch these two worlds in conjunction and get them in the same high power field of view :smiley:

I wonder if that situation occurs very often ?. Probably not. Do a google search on it and you have to wade through fathoms of astrology guff :rolleyes2:

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Taloniv:

I too suggest Stellarium - if you don't already have it. It can help you locate most everything up there. Here's my copy & paste download-guide:

Stellarium is what is called a planetarium program. You start by setting it to your location, and it will show you a very realistic representation of the night sky - complete with any and all objects up there you choose to include. The instructions are quite large. Setting it up can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 10 days. It's up to you. Similar programs can run you £200. But Stellarium is totally free. And away we go:

 

http://www.stellarium.org/
 
As for instructions, the most current one's are posted in Wiki due to their being new features & functions being created almost daily. There is also a Pdf. that's almost up-to-date. Here's the Wiki-Link:
 
http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Stellarium_User_Guide
 
And the Pdf. is here:
 
http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/stellarium_user_guide-new.pdf

At the end is a screenshot of mine set on Uranus.

Enjoy!

Dave

post-38438-0-50326200-1448278288_thumb.p

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I was looking at Uranus last night with my 10" although the moon was doing its best to make it difficult. It didn't look blue at all, but very yellow, which I took to be the effect of the moonlight somehow, presumably on my lens as I was struggling to avoid reflections.

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I was looking at Uranus last night with my 10" although the moon was doing its best to make it difficult. It didn't look blue at all, but very yellow, which I took to be the effect of the moonlight somehow, presumably on my lens as I was struggling to avoid reflections.

Thats different to my view - Uranus looked Green/Blue to me but I was using a deep dew shield on a refractor.

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It would be great to catch these two worlds in conjunction and get them in the same high power field of view :smiley:

I wonder if that situation occurs very often ?. Probably not. Do a google search on it and you have to wade through fathoms of astrology guff :rolleyes2:

It's not looking good I'm afraid John, unless we pop ourselves into some form of cryogenic storage!!

Last time was not visible from the UK, back in 1993, next one is visible and closer at under 1 degree but not until 2165 [emoji20]

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The one I enjoyed, but probably didn't appreciate the significance at the time was when Jupiter and Saturn were close together back in 2000, and at 55 degrees altitude. Wonderful views back then. Even closer in 2080, but that's one for my grandchildren I would think and they will need to travel to see it.

a1f90d409872eab0cd50bdafdd3c5b95.jpg

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Thats different to my view - Uranus looked Green/Blue to me but I was using a deep dew shield on a refractor.

Yes it was a bit strange, I thought it odd at the time. I checked my alignment of my nexus with the two stars either side and I was looking at supposedly the right place but maybe I wasn't somehow. I was using my 17.3mm so only 78 and the sky background was very washed out, should have increased the mag to double check. :)

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Damn you Stu!

As a direct result of your post. Rather than working, I've just spent nearly an hour fiddling around on Sky Sfari looking for conjunctions.

There are acually a couple worth a look in the next few months:

Friday 4 Dec 04:30 Jupiter / Moon 2°15' separation at 35°

Sunday 6 Dec 03:30 Mars / Moon 1°20' separation at 10°

Friday 8 Jan 06:30 Saturn / Venus 1° separation at 8°

Sat/Sunday 2/3rd Jan - Best chance of catching all the planets in one night (need very low horizons).

Paul

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Damn you Stu!

As a direct result of your post. Rather than working, I've just spent nearly an hour fiddling around on Sky Sfari looking for conjunctions.

There are acually a couple worth a look in the next few months:

Friday 4 Dec 04:30 Jupiter / Moon 2°15' separation at 35°

Sunday 6 Dec 03:30 Mars / Moon 1°20' separation at 10°

Friday 8 Jan 06:30 Saturn / Venus 1° separation at 8°

Sat/Sunday 2/3rd Jan - Best chance of catching all the planets in one night (need very low horizons).

Paul

Tee hee, a very worthy use of your time Paul [emoji3][emoji3]. Will look out for those.

I found the feature to show you the distance between two objects very handy for this. Just 'connect' the planets you are interested in then step forward by months or years until the get close enough to narrow it down accurately. Otherwise it's hard to track the second object.

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Thats different to my view - Uranus looked Green/Blue to me but I was using a deep dew shield on a refractor.

I was just reading through this thread after a few days, and noted a few references to the colour of Uranus. So I thought I'd fill you all in on colour and human-physiology:

The Human sense of colour is one of the last of our senses to develop. If you read Homer's Odyssey, you find the ocean described as being a burgundy colour. Red and shades thereof were the first we got - same as cats and dogs have today. Which is why it's not a good idea to give Rover your car-keys - he'll be stopped at green-lights. And nowhere is this sense more obvious to astronomy-people than by looking at Uranus and Neptune.

I conducted a survey of people who've seen these planets through scopes, even at the same times and locations, and people tend to see different colours. For instance, I see Uranus as a Dutch pea-soup green when high-up. Neptune for me is an icy-looking turquoise orb, similar to the blue-component of Albireo. Reading descriptions in books and papers also confirms this interesting phenomena. For those interested in colour and perception, take a look into the Munsell Color-System. Wiki has a decent overview:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_color_system

MIT gets into the act in it's art & architecture department where my dad was a leading professor in his day. So the next time your gaze takes you to these ice-worlds, realize that what you're perceiving as their colour would have just been awakening when the Romans were stomping about in the UK of then.

Enjoy,

Dave

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A gap of 171 years or so between conjunctions,

so if anyone missed the last one, they Ain't going to catch the next one either, unless they fast forward Starry Night,

or other Planetarium :grin:.

That's how I did it Ron [emoji6]

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That's how I did it Ron [emoji6]

Oh Stu. how could you. :laugh:

Well, I looked up the pairs  conjunction period I do  confess.

I knew it was very long, but thought it was longer.

Not surprising considering  the long walk those two have to make to meet up.

We may see them optically close, but still a huge gulf between them.

  post-567-0-59085500-1448819600_thumb.jpg

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