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The moons going to illuminate Uranus tonight... apparently!


Fozzie

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No joke, just read this in my local paper..

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/uranus-will-be-visible-in-yorkshire-s-sky-tonight-here-s-how-to-see-it-1-9416225/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Now if I'm being thick please tell me, goodness knows the wife derives pleasures from telling me so you might as well, but how can our moon light up Uranus... bit lost with that one. 

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Too many jokes, so little time...

This isn't the first time I have read something claiming that a big bright Moon makes it easier to see planets. I have no idea why that would be but will have a look tonight, assuming this also works from North Derbyshire and is not just a Yorkshire-based phenomenon? :lol:

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17 minutes ago, DRT said:

Too many jokes, so little time...

This isn't the first time I have read something claiming that a big bright Moon makes it easier to see planets. I have no idea why that would be but will have a look tonight, assuming this also works from North Derbyshire and is not just a Yorkshire-based phenomenon? :lol:

This is in fact true. Planets, at least the bright ones, benefit from moonlight to reveal details that tend to be swamped by their native brightness. It helps sometimes to keep the light on in an observatory. No help with spotting faint moons though.

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Sounds like more nonsense to me. I can only think it is because the moon is easy to find, and Uranus is relatively close, still not that close though.

I would love to see the light ray diagram showing how the moon is lighting up Uranus though ;)

 

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8 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

This is in fact true. Planets, at least the bright ones, benefit from moonlight to reveal details that tend to be swamped by their native brightness. It helps sometimes to keep the light on in an observatory. No help with spotting faint moons though.

I think better option is having a local light and not getting your eyes dark adapt. This impacts ability to see colors, regulates pupil dilatation (good when observing moon), on the other hand - not so good if you want to observe planet and its satellites, particularly if they happen to be dim ones. Oh yes, it can be used on a moonless night as well :D

 

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7 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

This is in fact true. Planets, at least the bright ones, benefit from moonlight to reveal details that tend to be swamped by their native brightness. It helps sometimes to keep the light on in an observatory. No help with spotting faint moons though.

I'm sure I read somewhere that as brighter sky's means larger pupil then more light more detail.. too an extent though surly..

It was the impression the news piece gave me that our moon was some how providing illumination that I found poor..

Still though might set up and have a go once the kids are in bed..

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10 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

This is in fact true. Planets, at least the bright ones, benefit from moonlight to reveal details that tend to be swamped by their native brightness. It helps sometimes to keep the light on in an observatory. No help with spotting faint moons though.

But not being lit by the moon though Peter, I guess that's what seems like a non sensical description to me. Jupiter is the main one which I seen benefit from observing in moonlight, perhaps Mars too?

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15 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

I'm sure I read somewhere that as brighter sky's means larger pupil then more light more detail.. too an extent though surly..

It was the impression the news piece gave me that our moon was some how providing illumination that I found poor..

Still though might set up and have a go once the kids are in bed..

I definitely see more colour on Jupiter when observing with some local light around, even looking at a light or phone then looking back at the eyepiece seems to help.

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I think there are a couple of newspapers in Italy that made the same assumption (about Uranus I mean).

But that's nothing, as the last lunar eclipse was approaching, they also said the moon was going to be red because of Mars being so close?

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Errm!  Maybe the moon is about to go supernova, would that do it?
Ok ok, I know, but It's no dafter than that papers report, well, maybe just a little bit dafter
Let's all have a think of another unsound  reason and submit them to the paper in question. ?.

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It is a silly story but they seem to crop up all the time in some parts of the media :rolleyes2:

My other half once tried to take a photo of the moon with a 35mm compact camera and used the flash. I did explain (tactfully) that, if her flash had managed to illuminate the moon, NASA might be in touch to find out more ..... :grin:

 

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I was in Devon for the 1999 Solar Eclipse.  We were camping in a field close too, and high above the coast, with many different kind of boats anchored just off shore.                                                 The sky was cloudy.that day unfortunately, but during the short durations when the phase was visible, the whole scene below exploded with camera flashes in the obviously.vain attempts to capture that part of the eclipse. Poor souls blissfully unaware that they were making things more difficult for their cameras to register the event. There were so many simultaneous flashes, they almost created daylight  in a minor way. 

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I was home in East Devon where the eclipse was only partial but the clouds parted near best moon coverage of the sun and I was able to see it for just over a minute before the clear patch moved away from the sun.  It did noticeably darken.

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I was in a park in Moseley for an overcast eclipse in 1999. It did go noticeably still, cool and dark around the time of greatest eclipse.

I was imaging said planet last night and Cartes du Ciel asked me to "Please confirm the telescope is pointed at Uranus" :blush:

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