Finding Neptune with Binocu...

The position of Jupiter and the Moon provided ideal landmarks to find Neptune with binoculars this evening. So I attempted to find it.

How many times have I looked at Neptune with a telescope? Quite a few, an easy blue-green ball, it always seems fairly bright with the larger aperture and light gathering power of a good sized 'scope.

With binoculars it was a bit more difficult, even when I knew right where to look. A quick glance at a star chart showed a pattern of three stars right beside the correct location for tonight. But the glare of a bright Moon only a few degrees away made it just barely visible in the 12x36 binoculars. I did locate it, just where the software said it would be.

Two planets are usually seen only with the aid of a telescope... Uranus is just on the edge of naked eye detection, hovering around 6th magnitude. It was actually spotted, and recorded as a star, several times before Hershel identified it as a planet in 1781. Neptune is beyond reach of even the best eyes, usually around 8th magnitude, over six times dimmer than Uranus. Optical aid is required to locate the outermost planet.

It does not take much, a simple pair of binoculars will do.