Spotting Uranus

[ScottS]

With Uranus being well placed in the night sky at the moment, I have tried spotting it but to no avail.

My preferred method with most objects, as others do, is to start with a low mag EP for finding the object, then upping the mag for viewing if required, but I'm starting to wonder if Uranus is just too small to use this method. Is it still just a point of light in a low mag EP?

So is it easier to find by scanning the sky with a higher mag EP right from the outset? And if so, does this also apply for Neptune? (I've not even tried for this one yet but I guess so).

Thanks.

Scott.

[Paul73]

As with most of these things. They are easy when you know where to look.

You should be able to pick up Uranus in your finder scope. If you have Binoculars. Find it with them first.

Leading directly down from Pisces Delta there are two dimmer stars, one directly below the other. Then offset to the right, two more stars, again one directly below the other. The lowest of these is Uranus. These all fit neatly in a standard finder scope Fov. Apply a decent wedge of magnification (x150 worked well for me earlier). you should be rewarded with a little Light blue/green disc.

The next challenge is to spot its moons.....

Good luck

Paul

[Grotemobile]

Neptune is quite hard to see.I was using

a mag of 240, & I could just make it out

in a 8" scope.

[ScottS]

Ok thanks. Looks like I need to just get out there and try again.

[Owmuchonomy]

Hi Scott, it took me a while. High mag helps me pick out the disc so I know it's not a star but then of course you are cutting down your FOV. Keep at it. As for moons is that even possible by eye. Interesting.

[Special K]

Hi Scott, I find this resource (or any other good source for that matter) will save loads of time searching or wondering if you've got it or not. The dim planets can take a few tries but the advantage is once found they don't migrate very quickly! As mentioned above, at a moderately high magnification you'll pick up a color difference which will confirm a definite sighting! Uranus is visible at quite low powers and with bins which makes finding it in relation to nearby stars much easier. Good luck!

https://in-the-sky.org/findercharts.php?obj=uranus

[Paul73]

Hi Scott, it took me a while. High mag helps me pick out the disc so I know it's not a star but then of course you are cutting down your FOV. Keep at it. As for moons is that even possible by eye. Interesting.

Surprisingly, the Moons are doable in an average 10" Newtonian form a ok, but not great, site (5.5 mag naked eye limit). Mind you, at mag 14 ish for the brighter ones, they don't exactly jump out at you.

Got both Uranus and Neptune in my 10 x 50 binos earlier. It does get a hell of a lot easier once you have found them a few times.

Paul

[ScottS]

Thankyou all for the advice.

[niallk]

Hi I spotted Uranus for first time a couple of weeks back - I used Sky Safari & zoomed in on Uranus to locate a triangle of stars to recognise location, then used bins to locate this pattern in the sky. Then I switched to the scope - located Telrad by dead reckoning, then used Finder to pattern match and used 50x to confirm coloured teeny tiny disc of Uranus at the ep. Was pretty low down at the time, and couldn't crank up the magnification too much - but still got the thrill of finding and seeing with my very own eyes. Fascinating planet - I was chuffed!

Next: need to find Neptune and try to spot their moons

Best of luck!

[Dave In Vermont]

An interesting thing about Uranus is it's seeming variation in colour. This can be between two people who are both observing the same thing from the same location - one may report that Uranus is a distinct green, while the other sees it as pale-blue. And still others may say it's more gray.

The human perception of colour is a very recent development in our biological model. Be that as it may, if you think you've found it, using high magnification will resolve it into a disk. And that will settle the question of whether it is Uranus, or not. Neptune, on the other hand, is more difficult to resolve to a disk. It needs decent aperture and yet greater magnifaction. But on the whole, it's distinct blue colour is a dead giveaway.

Clear Skies,

Dave