SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the 400-years-of-telescopes-and-you-go-nude dept.
Tonight – October 19, 2017 – the planet Uranus, the 7th planet outward from the sun, is at opposition. In other words, our planet Earth in its smaller, faster orbit swings in between the sun and Uranus today, placing Uranus opposite the sun in our sky.
Because Uranus is opposite the sun, Uranus rises in the east at sunset, climbs highest up for the night at midnight (midway between sunset and sunrise) and sets in the west at sunrise. Not only does Uranus stay out all night long, but this world is now coming closest to Earth for the year and shining at its brightest best in our sky.
But even at its brightest, Uranus is still quite faint. It is barely perceptible as a dim speck of light to the unaided eye. At a magnitude of 5.68, Uranus shines no more brilliantly than the sky's faintest stars. Given a dark sky free of light pollution, you might see Uranus with the eye alone – but only if you know right where to look for this distant world in front of the rather faint constellation, Pisces.
As good fortune would have it, this year the new moon – a moon most nearly between the Earth and sun for this month – falls on October 19, too, at nearly the same hour that Uranus reaches opposition.
Source: earthsky.org
takyon: The opposition peaks during the day in the U.S. (October 19, 17:21 UTC), so maybe try it on both nights.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 18 2017, @11:27PM (5 children)
I expect that was originally calibrated by averaging the sights of several different people.
Now I can say my Caltech Astronomy studies have not gone to waste.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Post-Nihilist on Thursday October 19 2017, @12:11AM
Now, if you had said Astrology at Caltech it would have been both a surprise and a loss!
Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 19 2017, @12:18AM (1 child)
Of course, these days it takes a pretty long ride from Caltech to see Mag 6 stars, even with the best eyes on the planet.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 19 2017, @12:35AM
Had my parents permitted me to visit the campus before I applied, I would not have applied.
Really, for astronomy, UC Santa Cruz is quite a good school, as it administrates Lick Observatory.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday October 19 2017, @10:12AM
About ten years ago I saw Uranus lined up with Mercury and Venus just after sunset. I followed the line from Mercury to Venus with my binoculars. After locating Uranus with the binoculars, I managed to convince myself I could see it with the naked eye in my peripheral vision.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by Ingar on Thursday October 19 2017, @05:35PM
The apparent magnitude of a star is a logarithmic scale, where a difference of one magnitude corresponds
to a change in brightness with a factor of about 2.5. In a light-polluted urban area, the practical limit
for visual observations is around magnitude 3 to 4.
Forget about it if you're anywhere near a city. A telescope might work though.