Easy way to find Uranus

[Moonshane]

Hi all, asking for it with the title but thought this might help others looking for this little greenish disk at the minute and struggling a bit, especially if like me you suffer from the dreaded LP and cannot even see the circle of Pisces with naked eyes.

First thing is find the square of Pegasus - easy - big open square of stars approx east. It's actually more like a diamond at the minute.

Looking at a star map find Alpheratz and jump to Algenib. jump again the same distance (approx south east) in a straight line, from Algenib. move the scope left (north) a little bit - just a nudge. you should now be in the right area and if you look in your optical finder you'll hopefully see an obvious right angle of 'stars'. the 'star' at the right angle is Uranus. look in your eyepiece when centred and you should see a greenish disk even at relatively low powers. hope this helps.

[Damo636]

Bagged it earlier using the same method :-)

[EntropyStar]

I found it pretty easily for the first time this weekend, I used Omega Piscium in addition to Algenib to further refine the search. It's a fairly straightforward line from Omega Psc to locate Uranus. I did struggle to see any moons though, think I saw one fleetingly.

[miguel87]

Awesome, will be giving this ago this evening, despite very poor weather today forecast is clear and cold. fingers crossed.

[rory]

thanks moonshane. now have the mod's any control over the weather ?

[Moonshane]

only the global mods - I'll do my best

[nightfisher]

Cheers Moonshane, i was only saying to a work mate today that i should try the outer planets, can you arrange for clear skies on friday please, so i can give it a try

[Davey-T]

Think I imaged it last week in lrgb haven't done finished picture yet so job to tell in mono

Dave

[mike.brightmore]

Spot on Moonshane. Uranus is next and to the left of the Star 44 Pisces which is exactly the same brightness (Mag 4.7). I also use the little trapezium of Mag. 6/7 stars (inc. HIP 1421) to the right and slightly above to check. See Stellarium image attached.

[greglloyd]

I found both Uranus and Neptune easily with 10x50 binos a few nights back simply by referring to Stellarium on my laptop at kitchen table whilst sanderling outside to star hop to them (did this at the end of my observing session so that I didn't need to preserve dark adaption for DSO's). For both planets I started from stars in Pegasus and star hopped from there.

[John]

I had a peek at Uranus last night with my ED120 refractor. Nice little pale blue but featureless disk at high power. Thanks for the directions Shane - I've not seen this gas giant for a year or two

[JamesF]

I've hardly done any night-time imaging for ages. I've been waiting for Jupiter to make it around to the right side of the house at a convenient hour. I might have to have a go at Uranus on our next clear night.

James

[sam mayo]

i have tried a few times but no luck as yet unless it black!

[rory]

"Hi all, asking for it with the title but" best title on the forums

[Phil Fargaze]

Something to note, which might help to find it. Uranus is approaching the star 44 Piscium (Mag +5.8).

On 23/24 September Uranus is going to be at it`s closest at about one arcminute separation!

[JamesF]

Something to note, which might help to find it. Uranus is approaching the star 44 Piscium (Mag +5.8).

On 23/24 September Uranus is going to be at it`s closest at about one arcminute separation!

That's the way I found it last night. Line up on 44 Piscium and left a bit

James

[WaveSoarer]

I found it last night with my finder scope detached from the main scope. It's too low in the sky from my back garden to see otherwise as there a few trees in the way. I'll need to find a remote site at some point.

[Stu]

I cheated and used goto , plonked it right in the centre of a 0.5° fov. Would have struggled to find it manually with the mak.

Couldn't find Neptune, that's my next challenge.

Stu

[Dipper]

I also cheated and used GoTo. But I've no appropriate eyepiece to observe it visually so only took a 30 s exposure to see it for the first time. I was surprised and pleased to see a hint of what appears to be its moon, Titania. A very fuzzy blob of few pixels in size.

[sam mayo]

i have h another go and stil no luck arhhh!!!!

[Moonshane]

keep at it Sam, you'll get it. at low powers it really does look like a star but if you look closely it's quite mint green and a flat disc (and really quite bright).

[Phil Fargaze]

I cheated and used goto , plonked it right in the centre of a 0.5° fov. Would have struggled to find it manually with the mak.

Couldn't find Neptune, that's my next challenge.

Stu

I must admit, to find Neptune I used goto but still had to use a finder chart to actually be sure it was the right star field. Then the magnification can be cranked up.

[Moonshane]

this site seems pretty good http://www.nakedeyeplanets.com/neptune.htm they have good maps at the bottom of each page.

[Stu]

Thanks Shane. What sort of magnification do you need to see it as a disk rather than it looking stellar?

Stu

[Moonshane]

not huge, maybe 150x easily shows it.