Uranus

Uranus is an easy object to see in amateur scopes if you know where to look. It is bright enough to be seen in binoculars, but you never see very much. The small planetary disk is about 1/10-1/12 the size of Jupiter, so it is impossible to see any detail on the surface of the planet. You probably need at least a 6" scope to easily notice that Uranus looks much different than a small blue-green star. Uranus has a small set of rings, but these too are invisible in amateur scopes. You can watch Uranus move among the stars from night to night. The images here were all taken with my 8" LX200 and a MX-5C CCD. With this size scope and a CCD camera, you can easily image the moons, but they are too dim to be seen visually with anything except the largest amateur scopes. At magnitude 14-15, they are a full magnitude dimmer than Pluto.

	Scope: 8" LX 200 SCT
	MX - 5C CCD
This image of Uranus was taken on 3 Aug 99. Uranus is the "star" in the center of the image. Five of it's moons can be seen in the larger image. Click here for a larger image Click here to download a PC DOS program (47K zipped file) to show the positions of the moons of Uranus This program is freeware.	Focal Ratio: f10
	Exposure: 2 sec for planet, 120 sec for moons
	Scope: 8" LX 200 SCT
	MX - 5C CCD & STAR 2000
	Focal Ratio: f10
	Exposure: 2 sec for planet, 120 sec for moons
This image was made as I was preparing for the possible occultation of a magnitude 7.2 star by the moon Titiania. Click here for a larger image Click here for an animation and my attempt to image the occultation	Scope: 8" LX 200 SCT
	MX - 5C CCD & STAR 2000
	Focal Ratio: f30
	Exposure: 3 sec for planet, 20 min for moons (two 10 minute autoguided exposures)
	Scope: 8" LX 200 SCT
	MX - 5C CCD & STAR 2000
	Focal Ratio: f10
	Exposure: 2 sec for planet, 5 min for moons
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