Looking for Uranus

[rockystar]

Hi,

I was out for a quick viewing session last night, and decided to do a bit of hunting for Uranus as it seems to be in a fairly good position at the moment, but having never seen it (visually) through a telescope before I was wondering if it was going to immediately pop out at me as obviously being a planet, or is it just going to look like another star? It felt like I was in the right area, but I was very reluctant to confirm a sighting.

So does anyone have any advice on how to find it?

Thanks,

Lee

[John]

It will look like a star in the finder but at anything from 50x and upwards in the scope you will see that it is a small blue/pale green disk rather than a star like point. It's apparent diameter is just 3.7 arc seconds at the moment though so it's going to appear very small even at high magnifications.

Worth looking for though, as is Neptune which is not too badly placed in Aquarius at the moment.

[Tinker1947]

If you don't used Stellarium it will show you where to look......

http://www.stellarium.org/

[rockystar]

Yeah, I've got stellarium, but what tends to happen is that when I try to follow a path (I was starting on the lowest star in the square of Pegasus), I get a bit lost, then try to match up what's in the eyepiece with a pattern of stars in Stellarium, convince myself that I've got them matched up so keep moving in what I think is the right direction and invariable end up in a completely different part of the sky wondering if the "star" I'm looking at might just have a blue tinge to it and be the thing I started out looking for.

I've just found a forum post about using stellarium to follow a star hop, so I'm going to give that read, and give it another go the next clear night - more practice I think, and maybe some printed star charts rather than nipping back to the laptop (dimmed and in night mode, but still a bit bright).

[Tinker1947]

What you need is a Telrad.......

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

What you need is a Telrad.......

Or a BIG finderscope

14x70 does the job well

[John]

I've seen Neptune in a 30mm finder.

I needed to examine a few "suspect" stars through the scope to be sure which one was Neptune though

It's fainter than Uranus, which is in theory visible to the naked eye, under dark skies and once you know which "star" to look at.

[rockystar]

The forecast for Saturday is looking clear (at the moment), so if it stays that way I think I'll take my scope out to my slightly darker site and give it another go.

[Mrbloke]

I saw Uranus for the first time last night! It took a bit of finding as it wasn't to easy to star hop from notable start points in that part of the sky with my light pollution. It's also quite small so can be overshot and missed as a star when you are scanning the sky. When you find it and stop, you will know. I found it at 76x and it looks different to a star, more defined. At 190x you can clearly see it's a disk, rather than a pinpoint of light.

Last night was super clear so I was really pleased to find it. There wasn't much colour for me - possibly slightly blue, but not too dissimilar from the local stars to be appreciable. This might have been hampered because I had to look at it 'over' London from my position though.

Good luck, it's quite exciting when you get it, as you know most people will never see it unless they are looking for it, unlike many of our other planets.

[rockystar]

I think I will be quite excited when I see it, even if just for the fact that I'm the one that found something a couple of billion miles away with my own kit (albeit with the aid of some guides telling me where to look).

The first time I saw Jupiter & Saturn in my own scope was awe inspiring, even though I'd seen thousands of amazing pictures of them from just a few thousand miles away, and even a couple of times in other people scopes. I think that's what makes this hobby so exciting.

[Special K]

What's great about these planets is they don't progress very quickly! Over the weekend I hunted down Uranus again and still just a few degrees away from where it was last year. Seeing was decent so it provided a nice disc at 171x using the new planetary EP.

Clouds were breaking in Aquarius, so I took the Neptune challenge. After about 30 to 45 minutes I was certain of having it. It is in a position with nearby stars of roughly the same magnitude so a detailed chart is needed to distinguish it. Hardly moved since last year! Star hopping from Sigma still works nicely. I have to admit it didn't look like much, but thrilling to pull it off once again!

[Swithin StCleeve]

Uranus is on my hit list.. for the last few nights I've been hoping to drive out with the pretty detailed skymap in this month's Astronomy now and a pair of 10X8 bins. I may not see the disc, but I'm hoping I'll know the planet. Been light cloud cover so far this week though,

[DrRobin]

Roughly speaking stars twinkle and planets don't, but depending on the atmosphere, this link explains why

http://earthsky.org/space/why-dont-planets-twinkle-as-stars-do

Although for a planet like Uranus it may be too small to actually tell if it is twinkling or not. As previously mentioned you need a pretty high magnification to see it has a disc, so start with a lower powered eyepiece, star hop to where it should be and try identifying Uranus. Once you think you have it pop in a higher powered eyepiece and see if you can see a disc.

It's not easy, but rewarding when you do find an object this way.

Robin

[John]

Uranus is around 2 degrees (4 Moon diameters) NE of the Moon at the moment. I'm going to have a look at it with my ED120 refractor shortly, hopefully.

[John]

Uranus is around 2 degrees (4 Moon diameters) NE of the Moon at the moment. I'm going to have a look at it with my ED120 refractor shortly, hopefully.

I got it

Just where Cartes du Ciel shows it to be. Nice little blue / turquoise disk at 180x. Very tricky to spot with my little 30mm RACI finder on this scope because of lunar glare but a 50mm should see it I'd think.

[Mike73]

I've just been looking at Uranus aswell, twice I thought I could see very faint equatorial bands across the top. It was one of those times when your not 100% sure what you have seen though, I guess thats why I enjoy planetary observing so much.

[John]

Nice Mike

I only got a few minutes on it at 180x before getting clouded out

I'll get the 12" dob on it on the next clear night.

I needed an earlier night anyway after last nights lunar eclipse marathon !

[Dave In Vermont]

As the development of colour-sense is one of the latest senses human's have aquired, it's not the same from one person to another. An example from antiquity can be found in Homer's Odyssey - where the sea is described as being burgundy-coloured. Thus it goes for how different people see Uranus and Neptune.

I see Uranus as a pea-green colour. Neptune, for me, is a dark turquoise.

Your milage may vary -

Dave

[John]

I've just been looking at Uranus aswell, twice I thought I could see very faint equatorial bands across the top. It was one of those times when your not 100% sure what you have seen though, I guess thats why I enjoy planetary observing so much.

Hi Mike,

Interesting recent post on the CN forum from Paul G Abel here:

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/512993-ice-giants/

He seems to have picked up some form of markings on Uranus with his 8" scope.

[Mike73]

Hi John

There are a few planetary observing specialist on CN which consistently show amazing sketches, I think Paul Abel uses a 8" Skywatcher (the old blue tube) on a EQ mount.

One thing I have always noticed is just how far they push magnification beyond the seeing conditions, more often than not they are using between x300 and x400!

I think I got a couple glimpses of that darker band around the EZ in Paul's sketch but its so hard to say really, could of been my mind playing tricks on me.

[rockystar]

I'm going to have another go tomorrow night, if I see something similar to those sketches, then I'll be very happy

[Mike73]

I'm going to have another go tomorrow night, if I see something similar to those sketches, then I'll be very happy

They are very experienced observers Lee, I'm not for one minute saying you won't see the detail they show in their sketches but they were made in excellent seeing conditions with well trained eyes.

They also have a very good knowledge of the planets and what they hope to see.

Paul Abel wrote this book which is aimed towards amateur visual astronomers, its not too in depth but not dumbed down either, its one that everyone with an interest in the planets should have on their bookshelf IMO.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/visual-lunar-and-planetary-astronomy-book.html 

[rockystar]

They are very experienced observers Lee, I'm not for one minute saying you won't see the detail they show in their sketches but they were made in excellent seeing conditions with well trained eyes.

They also have a very good knowledge of the planets and what they hope to see.

Paul Abel wrote this book which is aimed towards amateur visual astronomers, its not too in depth but not dumbed down either, its one that everyone with an interest in the planets should have on their bookshelf IMO.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/visual-lunar-and-planetary-astronomy-book.html 

If I even find either of them I'll call that a success, if I get anywhere near viewing that kind of detail, that's when I'll be very happy.

Thanks for the book recommendation, I'll add it to the list.

Definitely starting to pick up some good advice from these forums; I've seen Jupiter a fair few times through a telescope, but last Saturday morning was the first time I managed to pick up the weather bands - I guess that was through using some of the techniques that I've seen mentioned, along with the fact that I have seen it many times before. So I do appreciate that I probably won't get much detail the first time I see it.

[John]

My view of Neptune and Triton is not dissimilar to Paul G Abel's drawing in the link I posted but I needed my 12" dobsonian and was using 454x (Pentax XW 3.5mm). On the nights I've observed it so far I'd not call Triton an easy target by any means from my viewing location. It's been on the direct vision "border" and using averted vision helped it to pop into view more readily.

I don't recall seeing banding on Uranus in the past with my 12" scope but I've not viewed the planet with that scope this year and I've not tried really high magnifications on it. If the skies stay clear tonight I'll give it a go 

Jupiter is exceptional with regards to the ease of viewing of it's surface features. Mars can be good when it's at a favourable opposition. Seeing surface detail on the other planets is really challenging I've found. Even Saturn shows little more than a couple of faint equatorial bands, the occasional light patch or spot and polar zone darkening.

The more you look the more you see though so it's well worth spending time on all of them when they are well placed. Those little moments of the best seeing are what the planetary observer lives for and stay in the memory for a long time

[John]

Rather than hijacking this thread further, I've posted my own little observing report on Uranus here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/253930-uranus-and-a-moon-maybe/