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From: Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: OT, but non-political.
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2025 16:34:38 -0500
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On 1/27/25 2:34 PM, William Hyde wrote:
> 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
> 

I was pretty excited to catch Uranus with my decent binoculars last 
summer. This leaves Neptune and Pluto as the last ones I haven't seen 
with my binoculars or telescope[1]. Since I'm too lazy to pull out the 
well-packed-away telescope, it will probably be a few years before I can 
catch Neptune. I doubt I have the equipment or ability to ever see Pluto 
on my own.

Tony
[1] Whether one counts Pluto as a planet or not, I'd still like to see it.