For those who pay attention to my columns, I have described lately how our two outermost planetary neighbours have conveniently located themselves very close to unmistakable naked eye objects –– no more tedious star-hopping from difficult-to-read star charts or mentally switching left and right for the image seen in an astronomical telescope. Being planets, they are approached periodically by the Moon at various stages of illumination but the fact that seeing the Moon through binocs usually destroys your night vision for the next 20 minutes or so renders the Moon pretty useless as a planetary guidepost.
However, in the hour between 03:00 and 04:00 Tuesday –– awakened by leg cramps and the usual need for a bathroom break in the middle of the night –– I grabbed the binocs and sat on the deck outside and looked at Saturn about 30 degrees up in the SE. In the same field of view, above and a touch east was a stellar object just at my limit of vision and exactly where it should be, according to Stellarium. Bingo –– I got Neptune with a pair of 10 x 50’s.
Then I backed up so I could see the Pleaides but not the crescent Moon in the east and just within the field of view below and right of that cluster, there was Uranus, again, right where Stellarium said it should be. I couldn’t see it naked eye –– just a bit too much moonlight and my eyesight at age 74 isn’t quite 20/20 anymore – but nice and clear in the binocs.
Please note this little achievement adds nothing to astronomical knowledge or history; not like William Herschel who discovered Uranus in 1781 or the bunch that found Neptune in 1846. They didn’t know either actually existed or that anything was even there. Actually, Galileo recorded Neptune in 1620 or so but thought it was a star. No, I had Stellarium to tell me exactly where to look and there they both were. But if I can do it using binocs I haven’t cleaned in 20 years and with geriatric eyes with astigmatism, posterior vitreous detachments and early stage cataracts, just imagine what a 20-something with near 20/10 vision and eyes and brain undamaged by alcohol and tobacco (like I used to be once) might be able to do. The gauntlet is cast down, so to speak, and the challenge posted. What see you? (See what I did there?) (Jeez, the puns just write themselves!)
