Event Date: May 11th, June 27th*
Time: 7:51(.23) PM (image 1)/4:00 AM (image 2)*
Brief
Back on May 11th at the precise local time above, Uranus did something rare for its orbit around the Sun: it moved temporarily into a non-zodiacal constellation, being Cetus, the Sea Monster. South of Pisces and made up of mostly dim stars, Cetus gets high enough in the sky to see during hours sandwiching transit time, yet requires a dark sky to see most of them. For now, that doesn't matter; what does, is (1) where Uranus is, (2) why exactly this happens, and (3) how long will it be there. Before I get into that in the detailed section, *let's back the calendar up to May 11th to see exactly when Uranus crossed the Pisces/Cetus border.
NOTE: As a result of a very busy month, I completely missed this until yesterday, when I talked about it and Uranus' position in the sky briefly.
The image is a zoom-in of 5x. This way, we see the boundary near the ecliptic and Uranus' orbit a little more clearly than if zoomed out all the way. We still see part of both constellations' stick figures even. The sky is darkened and the horizon hidden to show the detail with no light or obstruction.
Time: 7:51(.23) PM (image 1)/4:00 AM (image 2)*
Brief
Back on May 11th at the precise local time above, Uranus did something rare for its orbit around the Sun: it moved temporarily into a non-zodiacal constellation, being Cetus, the Sea Monster. South of Pisces and made up of mostly dim stars, Cetus gets high enough in the sky to see during hours sandwiching transit time, yet requires a dark sky to see most of them. For now, that doesn't matter; what does, is (1) where Uranus is, (2) why exactly this happens, and (3) how long will it be there. Before I get into that in the detailed section, *let's back the calendar up to May 11th to see exactly when Uranus crossed the Pisces/Cetus border.
NOTE: As a result of a very busy month, I completely missed this until yesterday, when I talked about it and Uranus' position in the sky briefly.
The image is a zoom-in of 5x. This way, we see the boundary near the ecliptic and Uranus' orbit a little more clearly than if zoomed out all the way. We still see part of both constellations' stick figures even. The sky is darkened and the horizon hidden to show the detail with no light or obstruction.
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Detailed
If we look at where Uranus' orbit is above, only a small portion of it is within Cetus' boundaries, which carve out a decently large portion of sky to fit the creature. The ecliptic just barely misses it, which is why we never read about the Sun crossing into Cetus. Theoretically, it does for a very small amount of time, since the ecliptic gets as close as 5 arc-minutes from the boundary and the Sun is 30 arc-minutes in diameter. Therefore, as much as one-third of the Sun's diameter and a small chunk of its area from our perspective, is in Cetus. This happens early in the spring, yet goes unnoticed by many new astronomers who are taught of the Sun crossing the brighter stars of twelve zodiacal signs; okay, actually 13 if you want to count Ophiuchus' foot, yet we'll get into that later this year when it happens...a little too complicated to elaborate on for now!
As for Cetus, now look below for an image for today's date, and see where Uranus is; soon to leave Cetus and back to Pisces just days from now. It will move into Cetus, for which I will mention the day when it happens, with retrograde briefly later this year. Then, comes prograde one more time in early 2013. It will not return to Cetus again until it gets to this part of the sky again for its next revolution, about 84 years from now. Therefore, if you want to say that you saw Uranus in Cetus and in your 20's or younger, this year and next may be your next years-worth of months to do so!
This second image is zoomed-in as well at 5x. I changed the clock back to yesterday's time, when showing Uranus and Neptune.
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| click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp. |
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