Moons of Neptune and Uranus

[John]

Having spotted Neptune's biggest and brightest moon Triton earlier this evening with my 200mm newtonian I felt that I might be in with half a chance of spotting at least what is currently marginally the brightest Uranian moon, Titania. Once I located Uranus, I found that I could get quite a sharp image of it's disk even at very high magnifications (340x and more) so the seeing is pretty good. I've managed to get consistent sightings of Titania and Oberon and an occasional glimpse of Ariel as well, which is a new observation for me. Last time I saw Titania and Oberon I was using my 300mm scope so it was pleasing to repeat those with the smaller aperture and even more so to get fleeting glimpses (averted vision) of Ariel. This is a Stellarium generated image of the view of the Uranus system with a newtonian scope at high power. Miranda and Umbriel were beyond me this evening.

 

 

 

[JeremyS]

Great result @John. Have you ever seen any markings on Uranus?

[Mark at Beaufort]

Excellent @John I really must have a go with the 12".

[RobertI]

Nice report John. 

[Sunshine]

Nice! I will try and spot these moons but, I fear my eyes will puke trying with a 4" 😝 

It would be awfully exciting, though.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Sunshine

[John]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Great result @John. Have you ever seen any markings on Uranus?

Not as yet Jeremy. Tonight the disk of Uranus was well defined even at 600x but I could not see any clear contrast variations on it. It appeared as a fairly uniform grey-green disk.

 

[IB20]

Great news that these satellites are visible using 200mm of aperture. Thanks for the report.