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From: William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: OT, but non-political.
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2025 14:34:26 -0500
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James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <vn6pvn$b64j$1@dont-email.me>,
> Cryptoengineer  <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
>> This evening, I stood outside my house, and could see Venus and Saturn
>> in the western sky, and Jupiter and Mars in the eastern, at the same
>> time.
>>
>> Sometimes its worthwhile to look up.
> 
> I believe Uranus is also visible but only with a telescope. Although
> given Galileo spotted it without realizing it was a planet, maybe
> you don't need much of a telescope.

Uranus is a bit brighter than magnitude six, most of the time, and can 
be seen with normal vision in an unpolluted sky.

Even in the darkest of skies I have never been able to see anything 
dimmer than magnitude 5.5, but I had a friend in undergrad astronomy
who could see 6.5.

Flamsteed in the late 1600s observed it several times, cataloging
it, according to wikipedia anyway, as 34 Tauri.

Wikipedia also says it may have been seen by Hipparchus in 128
BC.  I did not know that.

William Hyde