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Uranus Possibly Visible to the Naked Eye During Opposition

posted by takyon on Wednesday October 18 2017, @10:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the 400-years-of-telescopes-and-you-go-nude dept.

Fnord666 writes:

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.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Post-Nihilist on Wednesday October 18 2017, @11:58PM (8 children)

    by Post-Nihilist (5672) on Wednesday October 18 2017, @11:58PM (#584257)

    The light reflected by the moon makes the pupils smaller and in a new moon there is no moon visible so your perception of the sky is way better. There is nothing mystical or magical about it... I tough that the way our vision works was général knowledge learned in highschool... Fnord666 and takyon apparently thought something along those lines.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by deimtee on Thursday October 19 2017, @12:11AM (2 children)

    by deimtee (3272) on Thursday October 19 2017, @12:11AM (#584267) Journal

    It's not just your eyes adapting. The moon can be a significant source of light pollution if it is above the horizon.

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    • (Score: 2) by BK on Thursday October 19 2017, @03:25AM

      by BK (4868) on Thursday October 19 2017, @03:25AM (#584350)

      Well, light pollution is intolerable. We need to find a way to keep that Moon thing out of our skies!

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    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 19 2017, @08:53AM

      by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Thursday October 19 2017, @08:53AM (#584431) Homepage
      If the moon is lightening the sky, you're in a part of teh world where M+5.x objects *won't even be visible at all*. Therefore the moon will not affect uranus.
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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 19 2017, @08:49AM (4 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Thursday October 19 2017, @08:49AM (#584428) Homepage
    > The light reflected by the moon makes the pupils smaller ...

    Only if you're looking vaguely towards the moon. Half of the time you aren't, and the moon's utterly irrelevant.
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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 19 2017, @09:08AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 19 2017, @09:08AM (#584437)

      Only if you're looking vaguely towards the moon. Half of the time you aren't, and the moon's utterly irrelevant.

      Are you really this dumb? Do you ever look at the stars? Have you seriously never noticed the moon, or any other light source's effect on the visibility of stars?

      Son, you need to get out of your mom's basement and interact with the real world before you spout opinions about things you obviously know nothing about