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    Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto This Year

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    birbiburbi
    The document discusses the locations and visibility of the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto throughout 1998. Uranus and Neptune will be located close together in the constellation Capricornus in the evening sky from late summer to early fall. Pluto will be high in the southern sky in the early morning hours in May, making it easiest to observe around that time.

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    Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto This Year

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    birbiburbi
    9 views2 pages
    The document discusses the locations and visibility of the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto throughout 1998. Uranus and Neptune will be located close together in the constellation Capricornus in the evening sky from late summer to early fall. Pluto will be high in the southern sky in the early morning hours in May, making it easiest to observe around that time.

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    Sky&telescope

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    199805096097

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    The document discusses the locations and visibility of the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto throughout 1998. Uranus and Neptune will be located close together in the constellation Capricornus in the evening sky from late summer to early fall. Pluto will be high in the southern sky in the early morning hours in May, making it easiest to observe around that time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    9 views2 pages

    Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto This Year

    Uploaded by

    birbiburbi
    The document discusses the locations and visibility of the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto throughout 1998. Uranus and Neptune will be located close together in the constellation Capricornus in the evening sky from late summer to early fall. Pluto will be high in the southern sky in the early morning hours in May, making it easiest to observe around that time.

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    celestial calendar

    AQUILA

    M72

    M73

    1
    1

    AQUARIUS

    13

    15

    CAPRICORNUS
    61

    May 1

    21 Apr 1

    Jun 1

    Jul 1
    20

    SAGITTARIUS

    Uranus
    19

    Dec 1
    Nov 1

    Neptune

    Aug 1

    Sep
    Oct
    1
    1

    Jun
    1 Jul
    1

    May
    1 Apr
    1

    Aug
    1 Sep
    1 Oct
    1
    Dec
    1 Nov
    1

    20

    17

    4
    h

    21 00

    20h45m

    20 30

    M75
    20h15m

    20h00m

    Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto This Year

    he eight major planets of the


    solar system (aside from Earth)
    span a range in brightness of about
    30 million; Venus this year gets 18.6 magnitudes brighter than Pluto. Their size
    differences, by comparison, are much
    smaller. Venus is only 5 times as large as
    little Pluto, and
    By Alan M. MacRobert
    even giant Jupiter
    has just 60 times Plutos diameter. The
    planets enormous range in brightness is
    mostly due to their different distances
    from the Sun (which determine how
    brightly they are lit) and from Earth (affecting how big they appear to us).
    Nevertheless, all the planets but one
    can be spotted without a telescope.
    Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are the five classical naked-eye
    worlds. You can add Uranus to your list
    pretty easily using binoculars. Its about
    magnitude 5.7, technically making it a
    naked-eye object under good sky conditions. Neptune is a somewhat tougher

    binocular trophy at magnitude 7.9. Pluto,


    magnitude 13.7, generally requires at
    least an 8- or 10-inch telescope used at
    high power with an extremely deep chart.
    The charts here show where to locate
    the three outermost planets on any date
    for the rest of this years observing season.
    Uranus and Neptune are in Capricornus about 10 apart. In April and May
    they can be found fairly low in the southeast just before the first light of dawn. By
    the beginning of summer theyre in this
    part of the sky around midnight. They

    Ophiuchus; its a degree or two south of


    the 4.6-magnitude star Upsilon () Ophiuchi. (During late summer it edges over
    the border into Scorpius.) Pluto is currently high in the south in the early
    morning hours, approaching its May
    27th opposition. It will be an evening
    object in late spring, summer, and early
    autumn.
    Because Pluto looks just like millions
    of similarly faint stars, identifying it is an
    exercise in precision map work at the
    telescope. The map on the facing page,
    drawn largely from the
    Join the nine-planet club by tracking down Hubble Guide Star Catalog, shows stars as faint as
    the three farthest worlds of our solar system. blue magnitude 14 or 15,
    somewhat dimmer than
    come to opposition in early August and Pluto. However, many faint stars near this
    late July, respectively. Their most conve- limit are missing from the Guide Star
    nient observing season is late summer Catalog, and its magnitudes are not very
    through early fall, when theyll be high in reliable. To be sure youve got Pluto,
    the south in early evening.
    check back on another night to see that
    Pluto spends most of 1998 in southern your suspect has moved.

    Uranus and Neptune spend 1998 shifting back and forth in Capricornus. Stars are plotted to magnitude 7.2 except near Neptune, where the
    limit is 9.0. Ticks show the position of each planet at the beginning of every month.
    96

    May 1998 Sky & Telescope

    1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

    Pluto drifts among faint stars near the OphiuchusScorpius border this year. Extremely dim at magnitude 13.7, it is still nearly a magnitude brighter
    than the very faintest stars plotted here. North is
    up, and east is left. The circled stars are 8th magnitude or brighter and appear on Wil Tirions Sky
    Atlas 2000.0. Dates are at 0h Universal Time.

    May 1

    11

    OPHIUCHUS
    SCORPIUS

    Jun 1

    21

    11
    21

    Jul 1

    11

    21

    Aug 1
    21
    11

    11

    21

    Pluto in 1998

    Apr
    1

    Sep 1
    11
    21
    Oct 1
    11
    21

    Star magnitudes
    5

    16h32m

    10

    10 11 12 13 14
    16h28m

    16h24m

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    Sky & Telescope May 1998

    97

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