Location: Atlanta, GA (33.7384° N, 84.4234° W)

Date and Time: 2024-01-31, 19:50 – 20:10 EDT

Sky conditions: Seeing – Fair, Transparency – Mag 3

Instrument: Celestron C8 SCT @f/20, Aperture 203.3mm, Focal length: 2023

Mount: Advanced VX

Eyepiece: N/A (Imaging)

Reticle Device: N/A

Imaging Equipment: ZWO ASI 224MC, 2x Barlow, ZWO UV/IR Cut filter

Image type and sensor: CMOS, IMX224 1/3″ sensor

Image capture details: Start capture: 20:01 EDT, End capture: 20:04 EDT, Duration: 193s, Exposure: 24 ms, Gain: 386, best 25% stacked of 2899 frames
Software: ASIAIR, Planetary System Stacker, Photoshop

In 1781 the first non-classical planet was discovered by amateur astronomer William Herschel. The discovery changed Herschel’s life forever and was a blow to astrologers who by their “craft” had no inkling that a seventh planet existed. The planet had been seen and charted years before on no fewer than seventeen different occasions. Uranus is visible to the dark adapted naked eye under good skies. But astronomers added it to their charts just like any other sixth-magnitude star. It was Herschel who finally had enough resolving power and the observer’s eye who could tell it had, in fact, a tiny disk, and was not a simple star-like point. He first suspected the tiny object as a distant comet and took a series of measurements of its position. It was somewhat later that he realized its true nature.

It is much easier today for you and me. The 3.8 arc-second greenish disk shines at a magnitude of 5.7 and can be readily found using locator charts published in the astronomical periodicals. Give a verbal description of your eyepiece impression.

I’ve never observed Uranus before today. It took a couple minutes to actually find it in my telescope. I knew it was close to Jupiter, so by “star hopping” I was able to see the smallest speck of light in my finder scope. Once I had it centered, I was amazed at what I saw. I knew that Uranus was going to be small compared to Jupiter and Saturn, but man, was it small! And the color was surprising. Once again, I knew it was going to be greenish-blue, but the shade of blue that I saw was striking and exceeded what I had only imagined before. I wasn’t able to see or image any moons. That’ll be a challenge for another day. Below is a video capture of Uranus before any stacking and processing.