Watch the moon pass in front of Uranus early Wednesday (Oct. 12)

[Admin]

The lunar occultation of Uranus on Wednesday (Oct. 12) won't be visible from all areas of the planet, but the moon will give skywatchers a good fe4X2PTvcHcm2zdHqzqApDe to finding the distant planet.

Watch the moon pass in front of Uranus early Wednesday (Oct. 12) : Read more

 

[rod]

Very cool to see. I am out now observing the Moon and Uranus, slowly get closer together in the telescope view I can see quite a bit of the lunar limb and Uranus at 25x using my 90-mm refractor telescope. Plan to run the magnification up to 129x and observe Uranus as a small, pale blue-green disk shape planet. Lower power allows me to watch the Moon moving closer to Uranus position in the sky. At my location in MD, Starry Night and Stellarium shows the Moon getting about 15 arcminutes or closer angular separation to Uranus near 0200 EDT. At 25x, the true FOV ~ 108 arcminutes or 1.8-degrees so you can see the Moon and Uranus together.

 

[rod]

Well, I did enjoy much of the show using my telescope.

In summary: I enjoyed last night's sky show with the Moon and Uranus I was out from 2200-0130 EDT this morning. Some parts of the US last night could see the Moon occult Uranus. The Moon and Uranus about 13 arcminutes apart at 0130 EDT when I came in and closer near 10 arcminutes near 0200 EDT this morning at my site. That was enjoyable. I came in at 0130, the Moon and Uranus separated by 13 arcminutes at the time. Nearest approach for my location about 10 arcminutes near 0200 EDT. At 71x, I kept Tycho crater area and lunar limb in view along with Uranus. Earlier I used different filters but as the Moon's orbit carried it closer and closer to Uranus position, I switched to no filter views. Uranus becoming more difficult to see with different filters used as the Moon got closer to Uranus. The entire waning gibbous Moon in the eyepiece with Uranus looked like a big pizza pie right smack in my eye It was amore but very bright Mars was up, I looked at Mars too at 71x. Mars 13 arcsecond angular size now so some surface detail noticeable. Higher power will show more. Mars rose above a tree line near 2356 EDT and easy for me to see where I was sitting with the telescope in back section on paved area, not way out in the fields and pastures. I enjoyed following the Moon move closer to Uranus at 25x, 31x, 129x, and 71x views. At 129x, Uranus was a small, circular or disk shape planet, pale blue-green color. When I enjoy looking at Neptune, it is very distinct blue color.