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Visible Uranus and other News

1 by mattG
http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk ... /nightsky/

According to this the planet Uranus will be visible (just about) on the 18th. Does that mean I will have to start taking it into account without damaging my "tradtional cred"?

I have in my diary an entry about the line up in the sky tomorrow the 17th so do check your ephemerides if you haven't done so already.

The printed note underneath reminds us that it is also the feast day for Hildegard von Bingen.The Wikipedia entry says she has been hijacked by the news age movement. Best thing they ever did IMHO

Matt

Re: Visible Uranus and other News

2 by Eddy
matt23z wrote:http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk ... /nightsky/

According to this the planet Uranus will be visible (just about) on the 18th. Does that mean I will have to start taking it into account without damaging my "tradtional cred"?
Uranus is always about magnitude +6, which is the boundary of (in)visibility. Yet this counts for a clear sky far away from cities. I've never been able to see Uranus without optical aid in my 300,000 inhabitants city.

Even if you are in ideal circumstances, it will be hard to discern Uranus from the thousands of visible stars of which Uranus will be one of the faintest.

3 by Andrew Bevan
Observng Uranus is unfortunately very much a game of 'Spot the Ball'. Even with a telescope. :(

I have a 5 1/2 inch refractor and Uranus and Neptune never impressed me, apart from the fact that it was a wonder to observe these dismall specks of light and know that the were distant worlds belonging to our own solar system. Imagine what the night sky would look like if we all were equipped with 12 inch goggle-eyes. This could have been a reality if we lived on a remote planet with different requirements to contrast and capture of light.

The human eye can observe celestial objects down to about +5.5 or 6 mag. under ideal conditions. Does anyone know how far down a Cat's eye can reach? What does their Universe look like? And how about an Owl?
http://www.astronor.com

6 by Eddy
roseadison wrote:I have really much interest in planets. But I don't have telescope so I can't see them So I see stars and try to recognize them.
You won't need a telescope to see the traditional planets, the ancients did millennia without optical aid :) . You will only need a telescope to see details like Saturn's rings etc.
Here you can see where to find some (at the moment) visible planets.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observin ... 32092.html
These months Jupiter is in the south after sunset and Venus in the east before sunrise.

And here is an online skymap, http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/
But perhaps the best thing to do is to buy an astronomical annual or monthly magazine and perhaps a star map. It's much more comfortable than whith the computer.

7 by Andrew Bevan
Anyone with a pair of powerful binoculars or a small telescope might stand a good chance of spotting Neptune as soon as the Moon is out of the way. The brightness of the Moon spoils the chances of observing dim objects and Neptune is very faint at 8 mag.

A little East of Jupiter there are the two small fixed stars Nashira and Deneb Algedi. Deneb Algedi is the brightest of the two and the furthest East. Just above Deneb Algedi there should through your telescope appear a small bow consisting of 3 small stars of the 6th magnitude. Neptune is just East of this and forms a T-square with the bow. Remember that if you find the bow, then Neptune is fainter still. Also, images are reversed in most telescopes, in which case you will have to look a little to your right of the bow instead of to your left.
http://www.astronor.com

8 by Eddy
Andrew Bevan wrote:A little East of Jupiter there are the two small fixed stars Nashira and Deneb Algedi. Deneb Algedi is the brightest of the two and the furthest East. Just above Deneb Algedi there should through your telescope appear a small bow consisting of 3 small stars of the 6th magnitude. Neptune is just East of this and forms a T-square with the bow. Remember that if you find the bow, then Neptune is fainter still. Also, images are reversed in most telescopes, in which case you will have to look a little to your right of the bow instead of to your left.
This picture may be of some aid. Note the two small stars left of Jupiter and the three tiny stars metnioned by Andrew, just east of the trident symbol of Neptune
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yourtel ... 31.820&z=1

http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/
This is the home page of the website, just fill in your local data and time and click with the mouse on the area which you want to explore, to get closer you can also click on 'zoom in'.

Another thing you can do is when you have made a sky map, just click on one of the names of the planets in the list below, a more detailed map will appear (in which you can zoom in again).

A wonderful website.

9 by Andrew Bevan
A bit more information, Algiedi and Nashira are both members of the constellation of Capricorn - so I feel we should know them better. Algiedi is an 'eclipse-variable' in the same class as Algol. It's magnitude varies from +3 to +5. Ebertin says it will bring a life full of change, but has a rather beneficial influence (in contrast to Algol) and has blending of Saturn and Jupiter - or a 'refined' Saturn.

Nashira has a magnitude of about +4. Here is a link with details.

As mentioned, these stars belong to the constellation of Capricorn. I notice that my Astronomical star atlas from 1978 by Josef Klepestra actually quotes the Arabian astrologers on stars of this constellation: "Arbaian astrologers called Beta Capricorni by the name of Dabhi or 'murderers luck' (or fortune). :!:
http://www.astronor.com
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