Uranus question

[iamjulian]

I have been reading around the topic of how the minor planets in the asteroid belt, and planets beyond Saturn were discovered. We know Herschel was the first to point at Uranus and say "that's a planet!", we also know it was seen by a few other astronomers, quite a few years earlier. But surely, at mag 5.3 - 5.9 it would have been naked eye when all the classical planets were recorded. I find it hard to believe that nobody spotted it earlier. Especially the Chinese.

[Merlin66]

It may well have been seen by others, but like many things in life never noted and recorded.

[iamjulian]

No doubt it was seen plenty of times, but the Chinese especially were keeping a very close eye on the sky, and probably plenty of other countries too, why didn't any of them spot a mag 5.5 wandering star?

[lukebl]

I guess it's quite easy to spot a 'wandering star' when it's at least 1st magnitude and clearly one of the brightest objects in the sky and your eye is drawn to it, but a lot more difficult when it's nearly 6th magnitude and insignificant amongst the mass of stars at that magnitude. The brighter planets are all so bright (even Mercury) that I guess they had no reason to suspect that could be fainter ones.

[JohnnyD333]

Galileo recorded seeing Neptune but thought it was a star, so he wasnt credited with discovering it. Ancient history is filled with connections to the stars and space, it just wasnt understood the way it is today. Remember, we were considered the center of the solar system for quite a long time.

[JimStan]

I can't remember what the dimmest star magnitude was when the scale was invented, but it seems to me that 5th or so was getting very close to that limit, even with nearly black skies. Of course, now days, with all the light pollution, we are lucky to see stars below 3rd magnitute. A trip out to the country, where 5th magnitude stars are visible shows us so many that we lose track of the shapes of the constellations! It would be almost impossible to keep track of a 5th magnitude planet running around among all those 5th magnitude stars! I am not the least bit surprised that Uranus was not discovered before it was !

Jim S.

[iamjulian]

Fair point Jim, though would it really be that difficult for someone who was watching the stars closely? I think there are about 2,300 stars up to magnitude 6.0 If one of them was following the ecliptic, I'd have thought someone would notice it appearing near a brighter star, where it didn't used to be. I am of course assuming that people were keeping detailed records of the stars. I thought the Chinese were pretty hot on the positions of the stars in days of old.

[Uranus]

A question about me?