Key Takeaways:
- Uranus will transition from prograde to retrograde motion, appearing to move westward relative to background stars, beginning at 1 A.M. EDT.
- Uranus is observable in the early morning sky, approximately 25° above the eastern horizon by 1 A.M. local daylight time, located southwest of the Pleiades star cluster.
- Binoculars or a telescope are recommended for observation, as Uranus exhibits a magnitude of 5.7 and appears as a bluish or grayish, non-stellar disk.
- Uranus will approach the stars 13 and 14 Tauri over the coming weeks, passing south of them later in the year.
Uranus stands stationary at 1 A.M. EDT, bringing its prograde (easterly) motion through Taurus the Bull to an end. Now it will begin moving westward, or retrograde, relative to the background stars, although its motion appears quite minuscule from day to day, thanks to its vast distance of some 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from Earth.
You can spot Uranus in the early-morning sky shortly after midnight, already 25° high in the east by 1 A.M. local daylight time and rising higher by the hour. It lies to the lower right of the Pleiades star cluster (M45), an easy-to-spot naked-eye grouping of young stars in far western Taurus. To find the planet, you’ll want to employ binoculars or a telescope. From the Pleiades, simply drop about 4.5° southwest to find the magnitude 5.7 ice giant, which lies in a relatively sparse region devoid of similarly bright stars. Look for a dull, “flat” star with a bluish or grayish hue. The tiny disk spans some 4”, clearly nonstellar under close inspection through a telescope.
Now that it will soon begin moving westward, Uranus will slowly approach a pair of 6th-magnitude stars — 13 and 14 Tauri — that lie 4.5° south of the Pleiades. Note the planet’s location tonight and then come back to check it every few weeks as it closes in on the pair, passing south of the two suns late this year.
Sunrise: 6:33 A.M.
Sunset: 7:23 P.M.
Moonrise: 7:01 P.M.
Moonset: 5:04 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (99%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.
For a look ahead at more upcoming sky events, check out our full Sky This Week column.
