Good morning fellow Stargazers!
Last night I stayed up a bit late in the hopes that I might be able to capture a rather elusive photographic target.
The planet Uranus -- the seventh planet in our solar system -- is theoretically visible to the naked eye in a very dark, moonless sky, if you know exactly where to look for her in the sky dome. Folks with good vision, and a good
knowledge of Uranus’ place in the heavens, can spot Uranus as a dim
speck of light on a dark, moonless night with the aid of a telescope, or a really good pair of binoculars.
Uranus travels in an elliptical orbit around the sun once every 84 Earth
years. At its closest (perihelion) the distance to Uranus from the sun is about 1.7 billion miles and at its farthest (aphelion) around 1.89 billion miles. Because of her distance and slow orbit, finding her isn't hard.
What made this particular shot of Uranus hard was its proximity to the waning gibbous moon -- which made locating the elusive planet easier, but actually made spotting it far more difficult from the moon glare. It took several adjustments on the camera and about a dozen shots before I was able to capture this beautiful (though faint) image of the blue gas giant over Luna.
Fun fact: Uranus was the very first planet to be found using a telescope in 1781 by British astronomer Sir William Herschel
who originally identified it as a comet, but after further observation determined it to be a planet.
Well friends, I hope y'all enjoyed my photo and post for today. I hope to have some more interesting shots of our nearest heavenly neighbors in the near future. Until then, have a wonderful Dixie day, and y'all be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies!
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