Autumn Skywatching Treat: See Uranus and Neptune in the Night Sky

Space.com ^ | October 27, 2017 04:08pm ET | Joe Rao

[BenLurkin]

Barely visible to the unaided eye on very dark, clear nights, the planet Uranus — currently shining at magnitude 5.7 — is now visible during the evening hours among the stars of the constellation Pisces, the fishes. Pisces is shaped like two fishing lines tied together in a knot, with one fish dangling from each line; it resembles the shape of the letter V, tilted on its side. The star that marks the knot is known as Al Risha, a fourth-magnitude star. Above Al Risha is a star of similar brightness, known as Omicron Piscium. 

The next step is to carefully study a star chart, then scan that region with binoculars. Uranus should be evident, set off by its greenish tint. Uranus just passed its opposition to the sun (on Oct. 19) and is currently visible in the sky all through the night. Right now, it appears at its highest at around midnight local daylight time, when it will stand roughly 60 degrees above the southern horizon; roughly two-thirds up from the horizon to the point directly overhead (the zenith). 

Using a magnification of 150x with a telescope of at least three-inch aperture, you just might be able to resolve Uranus into a tiny, pale-green, featureless disk. While observing Uranus from the Susan F. Rose Observatory at the Custer Institute in Southold on Oct. 21, New York amateur astronomer Bart Fried wrote to New York's Amateur Observers' Society (NYAOS): "[At] 180-power for Uranus ... that's a speck!" Unless the seeing, or blurring and twinkling caused by Earth's atmosphere is "total chaos," Fried suggested trying a 300x telescope, "and next time, it will actually look like a planet. And maybe with [a larger aperture], some mottling or cloud feature will be visible."  Indeed, larger instruments will better resolve this planet's verdant disk. 

[familyop]

There are two choices given by the dictionaries (both Oxford and Merriam-Webster).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4WuwXZaGgo
(Merriam-Webster)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnVXWrZV4yE
(Oxford)

How Do You Pronounce Uranus?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTKGXmITZg
“How do astronomers and scientists say the name of the 7th planet from the Sun?”

That’s the traditional, non-libertine way (Ur-in-us), which is also closer to the Greek but easier for Americans to say. Of the people from the sciences in the third video, the Lebanese in the medical school was the exception. Note his behavior. What a surprise. Enough said.

[minnesota_bound]

I never can make out those blue lines in the night sky.....

[BenLurkin]

Me neither.

[Albion Wilde]

It’s so cute that in the third video you linked, no matter how serious and scholarly these people are, they still noticeably blush when this question is asked, just from thinking about what the one guy called “the giggle factor.”

[Yaelle]

Using a magnification of 150x with a telescope of at least three-inch aperture, you just might be able to slip Uranus into a pale-green, featureless disk known by the name of Harvey Weinstein.

[familyop]

Yes. They would seem to be very gullible instructors for a mischievous older student to play with. ;-)

[Dick Bachert]

Sir, you made my day. THANK YOU!