Now is a good time to actually see the planet Uranus

It’s not going to be as bright as Venus or Jupiter of course, but the seventh planet from the sun, Uranus, is visible to the naked eye, especially now.

That’s because it’s in opposition to the sun, meaning the Earth is directly between the sun and Uranus. Couple that with the near new moon in its waning crescent phase, meaning no moonlight, and now is the best chance to see the gas giant that’s 1.77 billion miles away.

It will rise in the night sky at sunset on Thursday, Oct. 19 be directly overhead at midnight and set at dawn on Friday, Oct. 20.You would have to be in a really, really, really dark place to see it with the naked eye. Its magnitude, as in its brightness, is only 5.68.

In comparison, Venus’ brightness, which can fluctuate, is sometimes around -5. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is -1.4. Easy-to-spot stars that are not as bright, and have positive magnitudes include Rigel (.12) and Betelgeuse (.5) in the constellation Orion and Castor (1.57) and Pollux (1.14) in the constellation Gemini.

So those are easy to see.

Uranus would be visible as a pale green dot in the faint constellation Pisces, which while a large constellation in terms of how much of the night sky its various stars take up, it’s also dim, with none of its stars with a magnitude less than 4. Uranus at more than 5 magnitude is even dimmer.

Still, if you had a telescope or binoculars and were to look in that vicinity, you could catch your best view of the planet for the year tonight.

If you had super powerful telescopes, you might see its five largest moons (Ariel, Miranda, Titania, Oberon and Umbriel), but use your imagination, and think about all of the diamonds that are raining in the frigid gas giant’s atmosphere, as recently detailed in a study published in the journal Nature Astrophysics.

rtribou@orlandosentinel.com, 407-420-5134

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