Uranus visible with Venus in early morning

[Celtaur]

On the morning of Saturday, April 23, skywatchers will have an unusual opportunity to spot the planet Uranus, because it will be located very close to the brilliant planet Venus in the dawn sky.

You can easily spot Venus as the brightest object in the sky just before sunrise, but it will be better to be up a little earlier just as Venus clears the eastern horizon, so that the sky will be as dark as possible. This will help you to spot tiny Uranus, just within range of the naked eye under perfect conditions, but most of the time requiring binoculars or a small telescope to spot.

This sky map of Venus and Uranus shows how they will appear at dawn on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, Uranus will be slightly less than a degree (two moon widths) directly above Venus (in the northern hemisphere). It will appear at magnitude +5.9 compared to Venus’ magnitude –3.9, a difference of 9.8 magnitudes.

This is the second of a series of close encounters between six planets in the morning sky over the next two months. Only Saturn won’t participate in the dawn dance, since it is currently dominating the evening sky.

Upcoming conjunctions:

May 1 Mars and Jupiter
May 8 Mercury and Venus
May 10 Mercury and Jupiter
May 11 Venus and Jupiter
May 18 Mercury and Venus (again)
May 20 Mercury and Mars (again)
May 22 Venus and Mars

http://www.space.com/11454-venus-ura...ywatching.html

[bsbray]

I didn't know Uranus was visible at all with the naked eye.

I wish I knew astronomy better, because I don't like taking peoples' words for it when they claim an object in the sky is such-and-such.

[Celtaur]

Maybe a telescope would be useful. I doubt most people would have enough freedom from light pollution these days to see a truly spectacular vision of the sky. It's amazing how different the sky appears depending on your location.