What will Uranus look like?

[LukeSkywatcher]

This is what Uranus looks like with my 6" maksutov-newtonian at around 180x magnification:

I'd be very happy with that. I have not found Uranus yet but i am sure with my 5.1" Dob it would only look like a star. That image is a disk.

[Jdavies]

will my 8 inch be enough (bit of a Novice)

[pvaz]

I gave it another shot today. The conditions ware far from good. There was a layer of haze and my scope got full of dew in 15min but I did manage to see a disk. A tiny disk, but a disk (@ 240x)! At 120x only fine focus and a careful look indicated a disk and it could be easily mistaken for a mag 1 star.

Due to the haze no color was visible. Even Jupiter looked awfully pail tonight.

[perrin6]

will my 8 inch be enough (bit of a Novice)

Certainly - look carefully with a fairly high magnification and you will see a tiny bluish-green disc - the colour is the real giveaway cos stars dont generally look so vividly that colour but it will look bigger than stars of the same brightness too.

Alan

[Moonshane]

it's easy to find. assuming you have a correct image finder look at Jupiter, if the moons are at quarter to and past the hour then look at 10 o'clock. there are few stars in this direction. the second one is Uranus and in my 6x30 finder it's half the field approx away. good luck! it clearly resolves as a disk at 123x in my 6". even if you get a blurry fuzz, you can confirm you have it by using max power. if it gets bigger, it's not a star!

[Kef9]

Try using a plossl (high power or low power & barlow) this may show a different colour

It was the same in my TV plossl - Very greeny!

[paraman]

will my 8 inch be enough (bit of a Novice)

I can easily see it in my cpc800 (8inch), big its not, but unmistakable as a planet non the less.

[spaceboy]

It was the same in my TV plossl - Very greeny!

Sorry my bad! I meant a plossl that isn't a TV. Reviews have shown TV's to give a slight false colour (green). I think this is due to the amount of glass and the multi coatings. I suspect probably including a little coating similar to what you get on LPR filters. Hence why TV's give good contrast.

[Kef9]

Yep, I know what you mean. The only non TV I've got is a Antares Speers Zoom but that also showed it greeny. Could also be the telescope.

[Moonshane]

coatings may have something to do with it but mainly I just think it's different cones in different people's eyes and different brains telling us what colour it is.