Star Points for January 2011 by Curtis Roelle Can You Find Uranus? Playground humor aside, Uranus is a planet few people have seen and even fewer know how to locate in the night sky. Fortunately, in 2011, early January presents an excellent opportunity for anyone equipped with binoculars to do both. As a member of the gas giant planets, Uranus is of the largest in our solar system. However, due to its distance, Uranus appears faint as seen from Earth. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, known to mankind since before recorded human history, are the brightest planets. Each of these is easily visible to the unaided eye and closer to us than Uranus. Uranus and Neptune were discovered after the telescope was invented. Uranus was discovered first. William Herschel, observing from Bath, England, in 1781, is credited with its discovery. Neptune was discovered the following century in 1846. Nevertheless, both planets had been observed numerous times before their discovery. However, their true nature as planets in their own right had not been previously perceived. Uranus is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye but will appear to be an unremarkable 6th magnitude star just like so many others. In fact, it has previously been included mistakenly as a star in atlases at least 20 times going back to 1690, according to the late astronomer George Abell. Likewise, Neptune was observed a number of times prior to its discovery. The earliest of these was recorded by Galileo Galilei himself in 1613. It seems that Galileo was sketching Jupiter and its four brightest moons, which we now refer to as the "Galilean Satellites" in his honor. By coincidence, the angular separation between Jupiter and Neptune was so small at the time that he happened to include the planet Neptune in his sketches. He even made a notation in his logbook indicating how he suspected the "star" had moved in relation to other background stars. During the nights of January 2 through 5, you can share Galileo's experience, but with Uranus instead of Neptune. Uranus is in conjunction with Jupiter in the evening sky. Jupiter is bright, can be easily located with binoculars, and then used to easily find Uranus. To find Jupiter, look in the lower half of the southwestern sky at 7 p.m. EST. The brightest "star" you see is Jupiter. To confirm, look at it with binoculars. The planet should appear as a tiny round disc. You may see one or more of the four Galilean Satellites. They will be arranged in a straight line on one or the other, or both, sides of Jupiter. Now that you've found Jupiter as well as its moons in binoculars, you're ready to locate Uranus. In your binoculars Uranus is the brightest "star" to the upper right of Jupiter. It may have a slight bluish or greenish tint. Don't expect to resolve its disc in binoculars. Uranus' apparent diameter is only a tenth the size of Jupiter's disc. Be aware that brilliant Jupiter shines nearly 2,000 times brighter than Uranus as well. The planets are only ½° apart. If your binoculars have a field of view 5° across, then Uranus will be 1/5 of the way toward the edge when Jupiter is centered in the field. For a few nights both should be visible through a telescope in a wide-field view at low power as well.