Re: OT, but non-political.

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.