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Star map showing the path of Uranus against the background stars of Aquarius and Pisces from June 2006 to January 2019. Positions are marked for each opposition date and selectively for Eastern and Western stationary points. In this diagram, the marked stationary points are paired for each loop, e.g. the '2009 Jul' and '2009 Dec' stationary points occur in the same loop, the planet passing opposition in between, i.e. at '2009 Sep 17' (the planet will always be moving retrograde - East to West - when it passes opposition). Uranus describes a series of shallow, Southward-facing loops because the planet is South of the ecliptic (by less than 1º) throughout the period shown on the chart (the individual loops are not discernible in this chart because of the scale of the map; instead, each loop appears as a thickened line). Note that because of the distance of Uranus from the Earth, the angular width of each loop (about 3º.9 from Eastern to Western stationary points) is such that the loops have only a narrow gap between them. The star map applies to observers in the Northern hemisphere (i.e. North is up); for the Southern hemisphere view, click here. The faintest stars shown on the map have an apparent magnitude of about +4.9. Printer-friendly versions of this chart are available for Northern and Southern hemisphere views (the above chart will help in finding the general location of the planet throughout the period in question, however a detailed finder chart will be required to pinpoint the planet precisely - for more details, see below). |
The Position of Uranus in the Night Sky, 2006 to 2019 by Martin J Powell
From June 2006 to March 2009, Uranus was positioned in Aquarius, the Water Carrier, where it had been since early 2002. From March 2009, Uranus began its passage through one of the zodiac's faintest constellations - Pisces, the Fishes. During the 2012-13 period the planet makes a few brief exits from the zodiac as it traverses the North-western corner of Cetus, the Whale, before continuing on its way through Pisces.
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Uranus imaged by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft during its January 1986 flyby. The rings encircling the planet, discovered in 1977, are too faint to be seen with Earthbound telescopes (Image: NASA) |
Uranus reaches opposition to the Sun (when it is closest to the Earth and brightest in the sky for the year) every 369.6 days on average, i.e. about 4 days later in each successive year. The apparent magnitude of the planet varies little during the period shown in the star chart: from +5.7 (at opposition) to +5.9 (at superior conjunction). Around all opposition dates shown on the map, the planet will be due South at local midnight in the Northern hemisphere (due North at local midnight in the Southern hemisphere).
The apparent diameter of the planet (its angular size when seen from the Earth) at opposition throughout the period covered by the star chart is 3".7 (3.7 arcseconds, where 1 arcsecond = 1/3600th of a degree).
In 2010, Uranus reached opposition on the same day as Jupiter (September 21st) with just five hours between their opposition times; Uranus was then positioned 0º.8 to the North of the Giant Planet. The two planets also underwent a triple conjunction from 2010-11, passing each other in the sky on three occasions. An animation showing the two planets' motions during this period can be seen here.
In February 2009 Uranus reached aphelion (its furthest point from the Sun; in this case 20.1 Astronomical Units or 3 thousand million kms) and consequently was at its most poorly-placed orbital position for observation from the Earth. The situation only slowly improves and Earthbound observers will have to wait until 2050 (when the planet is in Leo) before it reaches perihelion (its closest point to the Sun, at 18.28 AU or 2.73 thousand million kms) to see the planet at its brightest and best. Despite the closeness, however, the planet's opposition magnitude will only increase by about 0.4 magnitudes to +5.3.
From 2011-12 Uranus crosses the celestial equator in Pisces on three occasions: in April 2011 (heading North-eastwards and moving direct), then in October 2011 (moving retrograde and temporarily heading South-westwards) and again in January 2012 (resuming North-easterly motion, moving direct). For the first time in over 41 years, the planet will then become visible for a longer period of time in the Northern hemisphere than in the Southern hemisphere (it last crossed the celestial equator - heading South-eastwards along the ecliptic - in Virgo in 1969).
Looking further ahead, the planet will continue its Northward motion along the ecliptic until it reaches its most Northerly point in Gemini in 2034, having crossed its ascending node on the ecliptic (crossing the ecliptic from South to North) in Taurus in 2029.
[Terms in yellow italics are explained in greater detail in an associated article describing planetary movements in the night sky.]
Finding Uranus in Your Local Night Sky (General Location)
Where in the night sky should I look for Uranus tonight? In which direction and how high up will it be?
The location of a planet (or any other celestial body) in your local night sky depends upon several factors: the constellation in which it is positioned, your geographical latitude and longitude and the date and time at which you observe. To find a planet in the night sky at any particular date and time, we must know two things: a direction in which to look along the observer's horizon (eg. Southeast, East-Southeast) and an angle to look above the horizon (known as altitude or elevation).
Use the following Javascript program to help find Uranus in your night sky during the year:
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For additional information on the fully-functional version of the program, see here. |
Mini-AstroViewer® is an easy-to-use Java applet which shows the positions of the celestial bodies in the night sky for any location on the globe at any time of the year (Javascript must be enabled in your browser for the program to function). To activate the program, click on the button below (the program will open in a pop-up window). The default location is New York, USA. To select your own location and then find Uranus, refer to the 'Finding Uranus ..' box below. An animated tutorial showing how to locate a planet in the night sky using Mini-AstroViewer® can be seen here.
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Finding Uranus in Your Own Night Sky using Mini-AstroViewer®
To set your own location, click on the 'Location' button and click on your approximate position on the pop-up world map. If you know your precise latitude and longitude, you can refine your position by pressing the left/right and up/down arrows to move the cross-hair in 1° increments (to find your latitude and longitude, visit the Heavens Above website, select your country and enter the name of your nearest town or city using the 'Town Search' facility). Having plotted your geographical co-ordinates, click 'OK' and the night sky over your own location will appear in the window, valid for the current time, which is displayed in UT (Universal Time, equivalent to GMT). The applet will initialise displaying the current UT time according to your browser's clock and Time Zone settings (if you would prefer to have the Local Time displayed, use the fully-functional version of the program at Astroviewer.com). The red circle represents the horizon around you; the lower half of the display represents the part of the sky you are facing. The centre of the circle is the point directly above your head (known as the zenith). The ecliptic (the path along which the Sun, Moon and planets will be found) is marked by a red dashed line, passing as it does through the zodiac constellations. The blue dashed line marks the apparent position of the celestial equator, which arcs across the sky from the due East point on the horizon to the due West point. The program plots stars down to magnitude +5.0. The bottom scroll bar rotates the horizon view, allowing for a view in any compass direction; the left-hand scroll bar zooms the sky in or out, and the right-hand scroll bar pans up (to the zenith) or down (to the horizon) whenever the view has been zoomed.
Infomation on a celestial body can be viewed by clicking on the object (in the case of a planet, its magnitude, distance, elongation and apparent diameter). Note that if the elongation of Uranus (its angular distance from the Sun as seen from the Earth) is less than about 20°, it will not be visible because it is too near the Sun. Remember that local twilight can affect the visibility of a particular planet, even at elongations greater than 20°, making observation difficult or even impossible. This particularly applies throughout the local summer months at higher latitudes. To find the general location of Uranus in your Night Sky, first see if it is above the horizon at the time you are requesting. If it is visible within the circle, move the bottom scroll bar left or or right to rotate the image until the planet is positioned on the vertical red line (the altitude scale). Zoom in to the area using the left-hand scroll bar where necessary (see animation opposite). The direction of Uranus at the requested time will be indicated at the bottom (W, SW, etc). The altitude of the planet (its angle above the horizon) can be read off on the altitude scale (it is marked at 10° intervals). Hence if it is three notches up, its altitude is 30° at the displayed time (to understand how to determine a planet's altitude in the night sky, refer to the explanatory diagrams below). If Uranus' altitude is less than about 10° it will probably be difficult to see because of the dimming effect of the Earth's atmosphere and, in town and city locations, the effects of light pollution or skyglow. If
Uranus is not shown within the circle, it is below the horizon
and you will have to wait until after it next rises before you can see
it (provided it is not too near the Sun). To find when it next rises,
click the 'hours forward' button ( If Uranus rises in daylight (i.e. if the Sun is already above the horizon), you will have to wait until after dusk to see it - in which case, 'fast forward' to a time shortly after sunset, then note down the time and direction. This will provide you with the general location of the planet in your Night Sky at the time you have requested. A more detailed 'star hop' will be required to pinpoint the planet precisely - for details, see the section 'Finding Uranus from 2006 to 2018' below.
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Uranus Conjunctions with other Planets, 2011-2015
Viewed from the orbiting Earth, whenever two planets appear to pass each other in the night sky (a line-of-sight effect) the event is known as a conjunction or an appulse. However, not all conjunctions will be visible from the Earth because many of them take place too close to the Sun. Furthermore, not all conjunctions will be seen from across the world; the observers' latitude will affect the altitude (angle above the horizon) at which the two planets are seen at the time of the event, and the local season will affect the sky brightness at that particular time. A flat, unobstructed horizon will normally be required to observe most of them.
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The majority of conjunctions involving Uranus are not spectacular to view because the planet is never brighter than magnitude +5.3, which is barely above the naked-eye limiting magnitude. Twilight quickly renders the planet invisible (even through binoculars), so conjunctions taking place less than about 20° from the Sun will be difficult or impossible to see. When one considers that Venus is always less than 47° from the Sun, whilst Mercury is always less than about 27° from the Sun, it follows that, whenever either of these planets are involved in conjunctions with Uranus, twilight will usually be a problem, the lighter sky diminishing the visual impact of the conjunction. Under such circumstances, binoculars will nearly always be required to glimpse Uranus as a pale-blue-green 'star'. Even when the elongation is favourable, a further problem beckons in that the glare caused by Venus in particular makes it difficult to see the much fainter planet beside it. In such instances (e.g. for the Venus-Uranus conjunction of February 10th 2012) binocular observers may find it easier to position Venus just outside the binocular field of view so that the eye can more comfortably view the distant gas giant.
Most conjunctions between Uranus and the other superior planets (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune) occur at elongations of less than 90°, when Uranus is below its brightest apparent magnitude in any given apparition. During the period from 2012 to 2015, for example, all the visible conjunctions take place at elongations of less than 42°, Uranus being close to the naked-eye limiting magnitude in all cases.
Uranus' most interesting conjunctions take place when the planet is within a few months of opposition, at which times they involve the much brighter planets Mars, Jupiter or Saturn; these events are however very rare. The most recent conjunction of note was between Uranus and Jupiter on January 2nd 2011 - the last of three conjunctions which took place between the two planets during the 2010-11 observing season (for more details, see here). Beyond 2015, Uranus' next favourable conjunctions with superior planets will be with Mars in February 2017, with Jupiter in September 2037 and with Saturn in 2079(!).
Neptune, positioned to the South-west of Uranus in the constellation of Aquarius, is often considered to be Uranus' planetary 'twin'. From the viewpoint of the Earth, faster-moving Uranus 'overtook' Neptune when the planets were in Sagittarius in July 1993, at which point they were seen in conjunction. This was the first time the two planets had been in conjunction since they were discovered (Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846). Conjunctions between Uranus and Neptune are rare events indeed, occurring about every 172 years; the next one will take place in the year 2164.
The following table lists the conjunctions involving Uranus which take place between 2011 and 2015 at solar elongations of greater than 20°. In several cases, other planets are also in the vicinity and these are detailed. Note that, because some of the conjunctions occur in twilight, the planets involved may not appear as bright as their listed magnitude suggests.
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Uranus conjunctions with other planets from 2011 to 2015 The column headed 'UT' is the Universal Time (equivalent to GMT) of the conjunction (in hrs : mins). The separation (column 'Sep') is the angular distance between the two planets, measured relative to Uranus, e.g. on 2014 May 15, Venus is positioned 1°.3 South of Uranus at the time shown. The 'Fav. Hem' column shows the Hemisphere in which the conjunction will be best observed (Northern, Southern and/or Equatorial). The expression 'Not high N Lats' indicates that observers at latitudes further North than about 50°N will find the conjunction difficult or impossible to observe because of low altitude and/or bright twilight. In the 'When Visible' column, a distinction is made between Dawn/Morning visibility and Dusk/Evening visibility; the terms Dawn/Dusk refer specifically to the twilight period before sunrise/after sunset, whilst the terms Evening/Morning refer to the period after darkness falls/before twilight begins (some conjunctions take place in darkness, others do not, depending upon latitude). The 'Con' column shows the constellation in which the planets are positioned at the time of the conjunction. To find the direction in which the conjunctions will be seen on any of the dates in the table, note down the constellation in which the planets are located ('Con' column) on the required date and find the constellation's rising direction (for Dawn/Morning apparitions) or setting direction (for Dusk/Evening apparitions) for your particular latitude in the Rise-Set direction table. |
Although any given conjunction takes place at a particular instant in time, it is worth pointing out that, because of the planets' relatively slow daily motions, such events are interesting to observe for several days both before and after the actual conjunction date.
There are in fact two methods of defining a planetary conjunction date: one is measured in Right Ascension (i.e. along the celestial equator) and the other is measured along the ecliptic, which is inclined at 23½° to the Earth's equatorial plane (this is due to the tilt of the Earth's axis in space). An animation showing how conjunction dates are determined by each method can be found on the Jupiter-Uranus 2010-11 triple conjunction page. Although conjunction dates measured along the ecliptic are technically more accurate (separations between planets can be significantly closer) the Right Ascension method is the more commonly used, and it is the one which is adopted here.
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Telescopes, Binoculars and Spotting Scopes for Astronomy |
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Orion Spaceprobe 3 Altazimuth Reflector Telescope Orion |
Celestron NexStar 6 SE Computerised Telescope Celestron |
Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian Telescope Orion |
Celestron C70 Mini Mak Spotting Scope Celestron |
Orion Scenix 10 x 50 Binoculars Orion |
Bushnell Falcon 10 x 50 Wide Angle Binoculars Bushnell |
Pentax 20 x 60 PCF WP II Porro Prosm Binoculars Pentax |
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Martin J Powell is a participant in the Amazon Europe S.à r.l. Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr |
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Uranus Through The Telescope For most telescopic observers, Uranus presents a somewhat disappointing sight. All that can normally be seen is a small, pale blue-green disk showing no detail. Larger telescopes will reveal its five brightest moons, which are (in order of descending opposition magnitude) Titania (magnitude +13.7), Oberon (mag. +13.9), Ariel (mag. +14.2), Umbriel (mag. +14.8) and Miranda (mag. +16.3). Even through large telescopes the planet often appears fuzzy and indistinct. Brightness variations are sometimes reported, the likely result of changes in the planet's atmosphere. In particular, observers have reported a light banding across the planet's equatorial region (whenever this is on view - of which, see below). Overall, Uranus will appear to brighten slightly at each successive opposition through to its perihelion in 2050. Because of Uranus' unusual axial tilt (98° relative to the plane of its orbit) it presents very different aspects when seen from the Earth. In the course of its 84-year orbit around the Sun, it variously appears pole-on to the Earth, sideways-on, or somewhere in-between. Its equator was last seen face-on to the Earth in December 2007; its South Pole will appear face-on to the Earth in 2030. When mounted on a tripod, digital cameras fitted with a zoom lens will easily detect the planet at shutter speeds of only a couple of seconds at higher ISO (film speed) settings. Some photos will even reveal the characteristic colouration of the planet. The images of the planet seen here were taken using a DSLR camera pointed through the eyepiece of an 8-inch reflecting telescope in 2006. The rippling effect simulates how the Earth's turbulent atmosphere affects the steadiness of the telescopic image. |
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Finder Chart for Uranus, 2012
In early 2009 Uranus moved into the constellation of Pisces, a relatively faint constellation with no stars brighter than magnitude +3.6. Although this would normally make the planet difficult to find, it does have one advantage: for the next few years, Uranus will be one of the brightest objects - if not the brightest object - seen in the area immediately around it (i.e. within a typical binocular field of view).
During 2012 the planet can be found by 'star-hopping' Eastwards from the Circlet of Pisces - several stars in a roughly circular formation, which form the head of the Fishes. The Circlet is found by looking South of the Great Square of Pegasus - four fairly bright stars forming a near-perfect square (use the Mini-Astroviewer® Javascript program above to find Pegasus and Pisces in your local night sky).
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of Uranus,
in South-western Pisces, marked on the first day of each
month for the
period from January 2012 to January 2013. Periods when the planet
is too close to the Sun to be visible are indicated by a dashed
line. Uranus is best found from the Circlet of Pisces, via
its South-eastern star Much of the star field in the chart should be easily contained within a binocular field of view (which typically ranges from 5° to 9°). Stars are shown down to magnitude +8.5. Right Ascension and Declination co-ordinates are marked around the border, for cross-referencing in a star atlas. A Southern hemisphere view can be found here. Printer-friendly (greyscale) versions of the chart are available for Northern and Southern hemisphere views. Uranus reaches opposition to the Sun on September 29th 2012, when it shines at magnitude +5.7 and measures 3".7 (3.7 arcseconds) in diameter. The planet is then 19.064 Astronomical Units (2,852 million kms or 1,772 million statute miles) from the Earth. During 2012 the planet's apparent loop is centred on the star 44 Piscium, which shines at very nearly the same magnitude as the planet; the two appear closest together on September 23rd, when Uranus passes just 0'.6 (0.6 arcminutes) to the South of the star. Click here to see a 'clean' star map of the area (i.e. without planet path); observers may wish to use the 'clean' star map as an aid to plotting the planet's position on a specific night - in which case, a printable version can be found here. |
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The Current Night Sky over Recife,
Pernambuco, Brazil
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Would you like to see your own town or city shown here?
Requested locations may appear on another planet page (see links below) depending upon the number of requests received by the author at any given time. A list of the night sky locations currently displayed on this website can be seen on the main Naked-eye planets page. The graphic shows the sky at the location indicated when this page was loaded in your browser; if several minutes have since passed, click the 'Refresh' button at the top of your browser (or press the F5 key) to see the current sky. The Night Sky location displayed here is periodically changed by the website author. Additional AstroViewer® Information Mini-AstroViewer® is a lightweight version of AstroViewer®, an interactive night sky map that helps you find your way in the night sky quickly and easily. Due to its intuitive interface, it is well suited to beginners in astronomy. The fully functional, free-to-use version can be accessed at the AstroViewer® website. It has additional features such as a Local Time display, a planet visibility chart for any selected location, a 3D Solar System map, the ability to store user-generated world locations, a 'Find Celestial Body' facility, printing and language options and greater flexibility in the night sky display (see details here). A fully-functional version for offline use can be obtained upon the purchase of a license key, following the download and installation of a test version. AstroViewer® is produced by Dirk Matussek. |
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Star Charts showing Positions of the Planets:
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Venus, 2011-2012 |
Mars, 2011-2012 |
Jupiter, 2011-2014 |
Saturn, 2006-2013 |
Neptune, 2006-2023 |
Pluto, 2006-2022 |
Current Position of the Sun and the Brighter Naked-Eye Planets ('Live' Star Map)
Credits
Copyright © Martin J Powell December 2006 - March 2011; amended April 2012
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) repeatedly until the planet
appears over the eastern horizon, then note down the time and direction
this occurs. By clicking the 'minutes/hours forward' buttons (
Psc
(Lambda Piscium, 
