Night Sky Watch: Mars helps Mommyo spot Uranus

2 Responses to “Night Sky Watch: Mars helps Mommyo spot Uranus”

1. rayworth1973 February 26, 2017

   Depending on the size telescope you have…

   Mars should be pretty easy to spot. It will be a very small orange to bland-orange disk, (if any color at all) this time of year. It’s not very large due to it’s distance from us right now. Now, as for Uranus, if you live in a light-polluted area, you’ll have trouble distinguishing it from nearby stars unless you put some magnification on it, at least 80X or so. Then, you’ll see that it’s a very tiny disk instead of a flickering pinpoint (or blob) of light. It may still look like a blob, most of the time, but it’ll once in a while sharpen into a tiny disk. Because of the light pollution, you may or may not get a hint of a green-blue hue. The thing to remember is that it will not flash and change colors like a star tends to do. It will be more of a steady glow, though if the seeing (atmospheric turbulence) is bad, it may swim around a lot.

   Now, as for Venus, it will be the largest of the bunch and may look like a solid, bright ball, or a crescent, reminiscent of the moon. The surface, no matter how large a telescope, will be completely blank. If you have a super large or super quality telescope and the seeing is in the top one percent, you may get the hint of a cloud band. I’ve only seen that feature twice in fifty years.

   Comet Encke? Good luck! If you live in a light-polluted area, if you can find it at all, you’re most likely to see just the head, which will look like a fuzzy star. In fact, you may not be able to tell it from a galaxy or a globular cluster, especially if you don’t know the sky very well and don’t know where you’re aiming. If the sky is dark enough, you MAY see the hint of a tail, depending on how low it is in the sky and how dark it is where you are. Also, it depends on how large your telescope is.

   Good luck if you get out and give it a try.

   Also, if you are a beginner, start with low magnification and work your way up. Low magnification is using the eyepiece with the highest number, as in a 25mm versus a 9mm etc. You want to search with the lowest magnification and widest field to start with. A higher magnification is like looking through a soda straw, especially if you don’t use a telescope much! Once you are on the target and can keep it in the center of the field, THEN try the higher magnification.

   Hope this helps.

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• Shala Howell February 27, 2017

  This is really helpful! Thanks.

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