If you've never been sure how to find Uranus, January may be your chance.

[eppur_se_muova]

Watch for the moon and Mars
Posted by Bruce McClure in Tonight | November 24, 2020

On November 24, 25 and 26, 2020, use the waxing gibbous moon to find the bright red planet Mars. For the fun of it, on our chart above, we also show the planet Uranus, seventh planet outward from the sun. You’re not likely to see Uranus with the eye alone in the moon’s glare, but you should have no trouble viewing bright Mars, which outshines Uranus by nearly 700 times.

You might see Uranus as a speck of light with binoculars. But you have to know right where to look on the sky’s dome, and it’s easier to star-hop your way to Uranus on a moonless night. For a sky chart, go to In-the-Sky.org.
***
Because Mars travels so much more swiftly along the ecliptic than does slow-plodding Uranus, Mars laps Uranus every other year. Mars last meet up with Uranus on February 13, 2019, and will next meet up with Uranus on the sky’s dome on January 21, 2021. At present, Mars and Uranus are about 22 degrees apart. But Mars will slowly gain on Uranus until their conjunction on January 21, 2020. Mars will be about 5 degrees west of Uranus on January 11, 2021, and then about 5 degrees east of Uranus on January 31, 2021. We mention this because a binocular field of view (FOV) typically spans 5 degrees.
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more: https://earthsky.org/tonight/watch-for-the-moon-and-mars



Herschel discovered Uranus using a home-built 6.2" reflector with a primary of speculum metal.

Uranus has an apparent size of 3.3" at conjunction to 4.1" at opposition, while Neptune has an apparent size of 2.2" to 2.4". To make Uranus appear as large in a telescope as the full Moon appears to the unaided eye, a magnification of 500x is required. For Neptune, 750x is required. These high magnifications are often impractical, even in large telescopes, because of turbulence in the atmosphere.

Both planets appear star-like in binoculars and at low magnification in a telescope. At magnitude 5.7, Uranus is bright enough to be easily visible against the background stars. A 70-80 mm telescope at 100x-150x will start to show disk of the planet. If you're unsure you are seeing Uranus, just swap in eyepieces with different magnifications and look for the disk of the planet to change size. Stars will remain point-like at all magnifications. Because these two planets are extended objects, they tend to twinkle less than stars.

https://agenaastro.com/articles/guides/observing-guides/observing-guide-uranus-and-neptune.html (beautiful photos at the link)

[underpants]

1. Nice looking Uranus you got there

[lapfog_1]

2. the jokes, given your subject line, write themselves

...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I can think of a few people who couldn't,

even with both hands and a flashlight.

Sorry, my inner seventh-grader just took over.

[d_r]

4. Thank you for making me feel young again

[VladmireTrumpkins]

5. I cam see Uranus!!

I hope to land on it someday!

[docgee]

6. Wrong headline for this crowd. eom

[Midnight Writer]

7. I'm good. The instructions are tattooed on my ass.

[liberaltrucker]

8. Too easy

Seriously, good info.

[cstanleytech]

9. The one currently at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave will be changing its orbital period soon.

[Judi Lynn]

10. This may be a helpful accessory:

[Buckeye_Democrat]

11. I probably wouldn't know it from a hole in the ground.