Uranus - possibly?

[Azelfafage]

Hi,

It's a longish story, but basically had a break from the Boards due to some flu-like illness that was hard to shake off & made it risky to go outside on crisp nights of good seeing :crybaby:

Moving on from the health report & having ventured out on Friday, tried to find Uranus from Venus, having heard they were close together. Not 100% sure the goto worked & just off-centre there was something that looked like a small tightly-packed globular. It wasn't like the pinpoint image I expected of a star, and there was nothing as bright nearby (V excepted, of course :laughing3: ). Silly me, I should have printed a star chart of the area before going out :oops: .

Have I really bagged another planet - what do others think, any similar experiences :scratch:

Since thought about trying to find it with the large binocs (having now got my chart :withstupid: ) but last night & tonight were slightly hazy so there was no point.

Rgds,

A

[scotastro]

If the GOTO worked for Venus then you will have found Uranus, but the latter normally looks like a small, distinctly blue disc. The planets are separated by about 3 deg.

Mike

[The Warthog]

I found Uranus a few years ago when it was separated from Mars by about 3 degrees. It looked like a blue star at about 120x. I found Neptune this year using CDC by printing a close up star map and very carefully comparing what I saw in the scope to the small scale chart. It looked like a greenish star. If Uranus looked like a cluster you may have piles you may have been slightly out of focus.

[kniclander]

:laughing3: :laughing3: :laughing3: :laughing3:

uranus / piles jokes always good value

[Bigwings]

Uranus centers quite well in the SE8 after a Solar System single point align on Venus and then just GOTO Uranus. This even when not quite dark.

Just a small bluish circle. Tried to image it with the NexImager but thats something I need to work on.

[Doc]

Saw Uranus on Saturday night. Easy to find about 2 degrees straight down from Venus. Placed outer rim of Telrad circle on Venus and the centre was approx over Uranus.

Appears slightly blue in colour and a little larger then a normal size star appears.

Hope this helps.

[Talitha]

Hope you're feeling much better, A.

Sounds to me like you spotted it. Through a scope, Uranus and Neptune look like stars which are slightly diffuse around the edges and emit more of a buffed glow than a brightness... a satiny sheen, if you will. Very much like your description of a tightly packed globular.

Btw, I've spotted Uranus and Neptune while using 7x35 binocs. They appeared star-like and would have been passed by as such if not for my prior awareness that they were planets. Let us know what you see using your large binocs, ok?