dipper@utastro.UUCP (01/24/86)
While the Voyager spacecraft scrutinizes the planet Uranus, you can try to see the planet for yourself! More -- after this. January 24 More Uranus A big day for Uranus. At about noon today Central Standard Time, the Voyager spacecraft comes closest to the planet -- swinging within only 66 thousand miles of the planet's cloudtops. Uranus is the first planet discovered with a telescope that's now being seen close-up by a spacecraft. And while the planet is never easy to see, it's just possible you may want to see Uranus yourself, while Voyager scrutinizes this world in space. Uranus isn't very bright. Right now, it's barely within the limits of naked eye visibility -- and it's low in the sky before daybreak. If you want to see Uranus, you'll probably need at least a pair of binoculars. If you've got them, you'll also need a finder chart -- an actual map of the star background with the position of Uranus shown. Luckily such charts are easy find this month. Both major astronomy magazines feature finder charts for Uranus in their January issues. We can tell you that Uranus is now rising into the eastern sky shortly before the sun. It's in the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer -- shining dimly -- definitely visible through binoculars. The planet is coming up at about 4 a.m. around now. When dawn begins to break, it's about 20 degrees above the eastern horizon. If you see it, notice its color. Most people call the color of Uranus greenish or bluish. So that's Uranus -- shining dimly in our sky before dawn -- a giant world becoming known today by the Voyager spacecraft. With a chart from one of the astronomy magazines, you could see it! Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin