{"id":44729,"date":"2025-09-05T05:54:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T05:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44729\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T05:54:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T05:54:06","slug":"the-sky-today-on-friday-september-5-discover-distant-uranus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44729\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on Friday, September 5: Discover distant Uranus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tUranus is in Taurus, floating near the Pleiades star cluster and easy to locate in the early-morning sky.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"489\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Uranus09052025.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Pleiades point the way to Uranus, high in the sky early in the morning. Credit: Stellarium\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Uranus is currently observable in the constellation Taurus, approximately 4.5\u00b0 south-southeast of the Pleiades star cluster.<\/li>\n<li>Binocular observation of Uranus is facilitated by its proximity to 14 Tauri, a 6th-magnitude star, located approximately 3\u00b0 west of the planet.<\/li>\n<li>At a distance of 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, Uranus exhibits an apparent size of 4 arcseconds and a discernible grayish hue distinguishable from nearby stars.<\/li>\n<li>Optimal viewing is suggested around 4 AM local daylight time (40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W), when the region of Taurus is approximately 60\u00b0 high in the eastern sky.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rising before midnight and visible all morning long until dawn, the distant planet Uranus now resides within the domain of Taurus the Bull. Its current location makes it easier than usual to find, just 4.5\u00b0 south-southeast of the Pleiades (M45). By 4 A.M. local daylight time, the region is some 60\u00b0 high in the east, above the easy-to-find three-star belt of Orion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At that time, you\u2019ll find Uranus to the lower right of the Pleiades. With binoculars, scan 4.5\u00b0 due south of Alcyone (Eta [\u03b7] Tauri) to land on a pair of 6th-magnitude stars in an east-west line. The easternmost star is 14 Tauri, and Uranus is just under 3\u00b0 east of this star.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The ice giant is currently 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from Earth and spans 4\u201d on the sky \u2014 small but decidedly nonstellar through a telescope. You may notice it appears \u201cflatter\u201d than the pinprick stars nearby, and also shows off a grayish hue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sunrise:<\/strong>\u00a06:32 A.M.<br \/><strong>Sunset:<\/strong>\u00a07:25 P.M.<br \/><strong>Moonrise:<\/strong>\u00a06:34 P.M.<br \/><strong>Moonset:<\/strong>\u00a03:52 A.M.\u00a0<br \/><strong>Moon Phase:<\/strong>\u00a0Waxing gibbous (95%)<br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">For a look ahead at more upcoming sky events, check out our full\u00a0<a style=\"box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 87, 138); transition-duration: 0.04s; max-width: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/tags\/sky-this-week\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Uranus is in Taurus, floating near the Pleiades star cluster and easy to locate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[18,19,17,2209,133,2210],"class_list":{"0":"post-44729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-observing","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sky-today"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}