Observing the Minor/Outer Planets

[Stub Mandrel]

I've had no problems observing Mars, Venus, Staurn and Jupiter. I've seen Mercury by eye in the past.

How difficult is it to fine Uranus and Neptune, and what sort of detail might be seen?

Also, how easy are the 'dwarf planets' like Ceres and Pluto with 'backyard scopes', I assume they just show as faint 'dots'? Evben a couple of hours observing has shownn me there are vastly (infinitley!) more stars out there than in the star atlas so how do you tell these small and distant objects from lower magnitude stars?

Stub.

Just bye-the-bye I looked at Stellarium and Uranbus was in conjunction with the sun at about 15:00 UTC yesterday, so nite in diary - look for it in October... :-)

[Paul M]

Uranus and Neptune are actually quite easy to see in small scopes. Identifying them is the more difficult bit. Having GoTo is a big help but without it you can star hop using Stellarium or other good software or star chart.

With better scopes you will be able to make out that they are disks and not just stars and their colour is also a giveaway. Usually described as between pale green to pale blue. You won't see any details.

Not many people have seen Pluto visually. It requires a larger scope, good dark sky, detailed star charts and patience. 

I can't get used to calling Ceres a Dwarf Planet. It was always an asteroid, back in the day Anyway, it's not difficult along with a good few of the brighter asteroids. They will only ever be points of light that move relative to the fixed stars over time.

It's still fun finding these things even if they are only points of light.

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks Paul,

I need much more practice at star hopping (it's more like star hoping at the moment)

[Grotemobile]

Uranus is not to bad to see. You can see it

is a planet. All I could see of Neptune was

a blue dot.You need a Goto scope to find it.

I used about 250x.

Steve.