Uranus gets low, near stars of Pisces

Event Date: February 24th

Time: 6:14(.41)PM

Brief

   Do you have a clear enough horizon--free of obstruction--to still find Uranus? If you do, try to catch it before it gets too low into atmospheric pollution.  By the time that the sky gets dark enough to try to see its color, it will only be high enough for a short time to see it, and then the greenish-blue appearance will fade.

The first image below shows the stick figure of this hard-to-see rope tied to a fish on each end: Pisces. The western "circlet" of stars, outlines one fish, while the other is not indicated by a shape at all, at the other end of the stick figure.  The second image shows Uranus in a binocular field with the closest, unaided stars creating Pisces'. Delta and Omega Piscium, both of 4th magnitude.

click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.

Detailed

If you recall during a recent posting of Uranus, I showed the star-field.  While there are no bright stars near Aries for the next several years, there are still a few in Pisces within binocular range of the planet, that are barely visible to the eye under the darkest of skies.

   This evening, Uranus can be seen most easily with each star separately, a little more than 8º from each.  It is slightly closer to the Omega star by less than three arcminutes.  Between next year and 2018, Uranus will approach Delta Piscium, with its progrades and retrogrades keeping it within 4º of the star and closer than 3º at times.  Uranus doesn't have any very close encounters with any other unaided eye stars, although it does come close to dimmer stars within Pisces.  The closest star it gets to over the duration of the next 24 hours is 44 Piscium almost exactly the same magnitude as Uranus itself-- just slightly brighter.  It is seen close to the planet in the above image just under 5 arc-minutes away.