Opposition of Uranus

Uranus will be at Opposition tonight at 21:45 BST. You will have to look at the Constellation of Pisces and Uranus will look like a brightish blue star but it will appear through any optical aid as a distinct greenish disc and that was how it was discovered. As a reminder Uranus was discovered back 1781 by a Hanoverian musician who came to England at 19 years of age and pursued a career in Astronomy. His name was William Herschel and he made Telescopes mainly 6 inch reflectors. He was using one of these telescopes on a March night and he saw something that appeared to move across the night sky in the constellation of Gemini the Twins. He thought it was a comet because of how it orbited in a very elliptical compared to Saturn which at the time was last Planet in the Solar System. Astronomers from all over Europe began to question if it was something Planetary and finally they came to a decision that the object Herschel had observed on that cold March 17th night was in fact no comet whatsoever. This was a new Planet orbiting beyond Saturn which like I said at the time was the last Planet from the Sun. This was very exciting.

One distinguishing thing about Uranus is the tilt of its Axis. Earth spins at a very reasonable 23.5 degrees and Uranus essentially rolls because its tilt is 97.8 degrees so we see the equator sometimes or its poles. In addition it takes 84 Earth Years to go around the Sun but 10hrs 56minutes to roll on its axis. If you can work that out that is 65'456 Uranian Days in every Uranian year and also a 21 year of nighttime and a 21 year of daytime so its calander is rather odd but I can assure you this does not upset the Uranian inhabitants because their isnt any.

Uranus has 14 moons and they are all named after characters from Shakespeares plays. The largest four Ariel Umbriel Titania and Oberon were named after the Uranian discoverers own son John Herschel. Uranus like I said will be in the Zodiacal constellation of Pisces and will be well placed for observation. The time will be 21:45 BST.