Uranus in a bright featureless sky.

[Size9Hex]

For some reason, I haven't bothered with Uranus recently, having bagged it in binos in late summer, and wrongly assumed it had since wandered off somewhere behind the house like next doors cat.

Popped out last night for a peek before tea having read about the recent conjunction on this forum. A quick check of a till receipt in my pocket confirmed the moon was bright enough to read by. The square of Pegasus was visible, but nothing inside. Uranus was in Pisces which basically was an entire region of the sky that didn't exist to the naked eye.

I was encouraged to see Hamal and Sheratan (mag 2.0 and 2.7) with the naked eye, two marker stars on Aires' head that I only recognised having used them to start the hop to Uranus in the summer. Mesarthim (3.9) next to them wasn't there.

From here, a controlled hop through Pisces with the finder scope took perhaps 5 minutes. Pisces isn't the most distinctive constellation to my eyes, but it does seem tailor made for star hopping with key stars conveniently spaced to typical binos or finders.

Lovely view of an attractive small pale green disk in the 10mm (120x). No features noted. The moons were always going to be optimistic. The 25mm (48x) put the disk into borderline "planet or star?" territory, but made the pale green colour more obvious by comparison against the nearby 73 Psc, an orange/red mag 6 star. A lovely view.

For what it's worth, my recollection from binos was a point of light in direct vision that may have been subtly coloured (possibly my wishful thinking though).

Moments later, the timer on the oven sounded, and I was snapped straight back from the icy depths of the outer planets, to plod across the kitchen in my slippers and check on tea, with my sense of perspective struggling to deal with what had just happened.

A short, rather unexpected, but cool session.

[Dave Lloyd]

Very nice account, didn't realise you could see it very well with bins.

[Owmuchonomy]

Yes it is quite featureless around there. I was very lucky to reach 230x last night in moments of good seeing and it really was quite green. 9.25SCT and Baader Hyperion 10mm.

[Size9Hex]

Very nice account, didn't realise you could see it very well with bins.

Yep, I wouldn't say you can see much but it is nice to know what you're looking at with humble binos. I think I saw some folks have bagged it naked eye which

[Size9Hex]

... which seems fair at mag 5.7 but for me it's in the light polluted part of the sky towards town.

Forgive the broken message. Clumsy typing on a phone screen.

[Paul73]

Good catch with the bins. Now have a go for Neptune......

Paul

[goodricke1]

I think I saw some folks have bagged it naked eye

Managed it in October. Pi Piscium at mag 5.5 was easy and mag 5.9 HIP 8588 also detectable, Uranus was nearby and slightly brighter. Sorry for rubbing it in to the city folk.

[laudropb]

Very nice report and capture. No chance here for clouds.

[Size9Hex]

Good catch with the bins. Now have a go for Neptune......

Paul

Sounds good. I spotted Neptune in the binos as a dim averted vision colourless point of light. Amazed it was possible at all. Would love to see it in the new scope, particularly some colour, or a moon.

Mercury has proved the toughest for me. I guess this one is more a question of timing/planning? Sky Safari tells me April next year, at sunset, might be a good chance.

[Size9Hex]

Very nice report and capture. No chance here for clouds.

Sorry to hear. Sounds like you've not had the best time of it recently. Fingers crossed for cold crisp clear winter nights.

[Size9Hex]

Yes it is quite featureless around there. I was very lucky to reach 230x last night in moments of good seeing and it really was quite green. 9.25SCT and Baader Hyperion 10mm.

Superb. I'd have loved a bit more magnification for it. Were you able to see any detail at that level? I'm looking forwards to trying again when the moon has moved on.

[Owmuchonomy]

Superb. I'd have loved a bit more magnification for it. Were you able to see any detail at that level? I'm looking forwards to trying again when the moon has moved on.

No.

[John]

Nice report

I've managed to observe Uranus and Neptune at 300x - 400x a few times this year with my 12" dobsonian. I've seen 2 Uranian moons (Titania and Oberon) and 1 Neptunian (Triton) but, so far, no definite surface features on either of the planets. The moons are very faint with those I've seen being the brightest and even then magnitude 12 - 13. Triton is a little easier than Titania and Obseron.