Can't find Uranus

[lhuchison]

I spent a couple of fruitless hours last night trying to find Uranus, no luck though.

Checked my charts and sky safari, still no go!

Maybe it's the extra bright moon last night?

Every time I thought I found it , when I upped the mag, it still looked like a star.

I presume it should look like a small disc? At 100+ mag?

Any tips?

[Gartut200]

I found it for the first time last night. It was very very faint, mainly due to the moon and LP around the area but you can see it had a slight green hue and it was not sparkling like stars. You will get there. Plus it's getting lower and lower now so it will be harder to find soon.

[Pig]

I was itching to find Uranus for quite some time, it was such a relief when I finally did

[RobH]

I was itching to find Uranus for quite some time, it was such a relief when I finally did

That's probably the wittiest and most original thing I've ever heard in my life   How old are you?

Just off to find a rusty razor blade!!

[Paul73]

At 100+ you should be fine. I found it after much searching and identified it at 75x. With last night's moon pollution, it wasn't even visible in my 8x view finder!

My main problem was id'ing which star I was looking at in Pisces to navigate from. Stellarium helped with this. At 50x I identified three stars that it could be. Then had a look at each at 75x and there it was a definite bluish tiny disc (looked very like any other star at 50x unless you look really really carefully).

Probably a lot easier without the moon. But a rewarding find after a couple if previous aborted attempts and a good hour of searching last night!

Don't give up, it is still relatively high in the early evening.

Paul

[Moonshane]

it's visible in a 9x50 finder. look for a mag 8 star approx that is not on your star map.

[Beulah]

At 100+ you should be fine. I found it after much searching and identified it at 75x. With last night's moon pollution, it wasn't even visible in my 8x view finder!

My main problem was id'ing which star I was looking at in Pisces to navigate from. Stellarium helped with this. At 50x I identified three stars that it could be. Then had a look at each at 75x and there it was a definite bluish tiny disc (looked very like any other star at 50x unless you look really really carefully).

Probably a lot easier without the moon. But a rewarding find after a couple if previous aborted attempts and a good hour of searching last night!

Don't give up, it is still relatively high in the early evening.

Paul

I would agree with this. I have tried looking and had to lower my expectations of what I would find. To me it looked like a small, dim planetary nebula, like the Snowball nebula (NGC7662), but less bright.

Leon, If you are slewing the scope the old fashioned way, the slower you move it about the more likely you will find it. From my experience, it's a tricky one.

[Mr Spock]

Try using CdC. Uranus' star field is easier to follow on a good chart. It lists the magnitude as 5.8.

[Moonshane]

Try using CdC. Uranus' star field is easier to follow on a good chart. It lists the magnitude as 5.8.

sorry, quite right, I think I had confused mag 8 with Neptune for which the same applies.

[lhuchison]

thanks guys, ill keep trying . Glad to hear its quite difficult, i don't feel so bad!

[callisto]

That's probably the wittiest and most original thing I've ever heard in my life   How old are you?

Just off to find a rusty razor blade!!

LOL