Uranus and Neptune

[kerrylewis]

Like many I was grateful for the few hours of clear sky last night. Jupiter and Saturn are obviously stealing the show at the moment  as they edge closer together (from our viewpoint at least)  but the highlight for me was seeing Uranus and Neptune. The Mewlon seems to emphasise colour and their tiny discs were a treat: Uranus green/blue and Neptune azure blue, with the discs taking quite a bit of magnification.

Good to see all the outer planets on show and I find these two most distant worlds very evocative. 

[John]

Nice report Kerry

You should be able to see Triton, Neptunes largest moon with the Mewlon I would think.

It's around magnitude 12 and at max 16 arc seconds from Neptune. Cartes du Ciel shows the position quite accurately.

High magnification helps but the Mewlon is fully capable of that I'm sure

 

[kerrylewis]

Thanks John - I’ve never attempted Triton. Sky Safari shows its position too. Although I’ll have to switch of the Christmas lights methinks 😀

[Paz]

Nice report. I had a brief look for Neptune in binoculars yesterday and could only just see it as a dim blue dot near to Phi Aquaris with averted vision at 8x. I'm guessing you were at a lot higher magnification than that!

[Geoff Barnes]

These two are on my target list tonight as we have a warm clear calm night ahead for once.

I have seen Neptune a couple of times recently but it appears as the tiniest blue dot even at 375x. Haven't seen Triton yet and with light summer skies here I probably won't tonight but will give it a go.

Looking forward to seeing Uranus very much, SkySafari shows it as about 50% bigger than Neptune so I expect to see a clear disc at 375x, will try for more power if conditions allow but may be too dim then.

Will probably spend most time on Mars as it is perfectly placed from here at the moment. 😁

[kerrylewis]

On 13/12/2020 at 17:25, John said:

 

You should be able to see Triton, Neptunes largest moon with the Mewlon I would think.

It's around magnitude 12 and at max 16 arc seconds from Neptune. Cartes du Ciel shows the position quite accurately.

High magnification helps but the Mewlon is fully capable of that I'm sure

 

Following your heads up John, I  think I may have got it tonight. In the right position according to Sky Safari. Obviously faint and further from the planet than I expected but no stars indicated in the vicinity 

I will need to check another couple of times before I'm convinced I think - but great to try.

A diversion from THE pair anyway😀