faint "stars" in motion: what are they???

[wktaylor]

Folks... Help!!

I Live in S-central Kansas USA.

For the last few months I've taking a walk at ~2200--2230 CDT.

In the south & south-west sky, ~25--30 deg elevation, are two fairly bright stars [about 2-closed fists-apart].

The most western bright "star", closed-with and is now separating from an extremely faint star. When I first noticed the "bright-faint pair" they were very close to each-other and seemed to be "drifting together".... but I couldn't tell for sure. These two "stars" seemed to stayed "very close" for a couple of weeks ... but they are now obviously separating [E-to-W] "rapidly"... to the point I see more distance betwen them each night.

What am I seeing???? My little low powered binoculars are giving me no clue... and I don't know anyone local with a good telescope or astronomical knowledge.

NOTE. Observing in KS with our fickel weather can be either very annoying/frustrating... or spectacular (on clear nights).


Regards, Wil Taylor

[owlice]

I suspect you are seeing the planet Saturn and the star Porrima. See here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/

[neufer]

I suspect you are seeing the planet Saturn and the star Porrima. See here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/

<<Gamma Virginis (γ Vir, γ Virginis) is a star in the constellation Virgo. It has the traditional names Porrima, Postvarta and Arich. In ancient Roman religion, Antevorta and her sister Postvorta were described as companions or siblings of the goddess Carmenta, sometimes referred to as "the Carmentae". They may have originally been two aspects of Carmenta, namely those of her knowledge of the future and the past (compare the two-faced Janus). Antevorta and Postvorta had two altars in Rome and were invoked by pregnant women as protectors against the dangers of childbirth. Antevorta was said to be present at the birth when the baby was born head-first; Postvorta, when the feet of the baby came first.

Gamma Virginis is a binary star, consisting of two stars of approximately equal apparent magnitudes 3.48 and 3.50, and of spectral type F0V. With an orbital period of 168.93 years [comparable to two orbits of Uranus = 168.65 yr] it was an easy object for amateur astronomers until the beginning of the 1990s, but now the smaller apparent distance between the stars requires a larger telescope. The last time they were at periapsis was in 1836. The distance will again be wide enough in 2020 to view with a small telescope. The star system has a combined apparent magnitude of 2.9. The system is 39 light years away from the Sun.

As Gamma Virginis is close to the ecliptic, it can be occulted by the Moon and (extremely rarely) by planets.>>

[wktaylor]

Great info guys!! Thanks.

Is Uranus visible to the naked eye [especially in typical mid-west summer hot/slightly humid conditions]????

[Chris Peterson]

Is Uranus visible to the naked eye [especially in typical mid-west summer hot/slightly humid conditions]????

It is just barely visible to the naked eye, assuming good observing conditions and a skilled observer. Presumably those caveats help explain why there is no record of any detection of a planet beyond Saturn by any ancient civilizations.

[neufer]

Is Uranus visible to the naked eye [especially in typical mid-west summer hot/slightly humid conditions]????

Perhaps (below Pegasus around 4 AM),
but you'd be much better off 1) with binoculars & 2) in the winter (especially last winter).

[Over the next few weeks, both Jupiter & Uranus] will be easily visible near one another in the same binocular field of view. The stars shown are 20 Piscium and 24 Piscium, both about the same brightness as Uranus. Jupiter's position is shown weekly through Jan. 12. Uranus moves much more slowly, traveling only the length of the arrow from Dec. 22 to Jan. 12. Created with Chris Marriott's SkyMap.

---

Crazy halos plus Jupiter plays tag with Uranus
Posted on December 22, 2010 by astrobob

<<With the moon now rising later each night, we’re once again entering a period of dark skies, perfect for enjoying a starry sky and seeking interesting celestial objects. One of them is the planet Uranus, and you don’t need a scope to see it. Any pair of binoculars will do the trick thanks to Jupiter being in the neighborhood. The map above shows the motion of both planets in the next few weeks. Right now they’re less than 1 1/2 degrees apart and will be closest on the night of January 3 at just half a degree.

Go out at nightfall (around 6-6:30 p.m. for the northern states) and point your binoculars at that super-bright “star” high in the southern sky. Yep, that’s Jupiter. Look to the planet’s upper left for a “star” of similar brightness to 20 and 24 shown in the map. Congratulations – that’s Uranus, the 7th planet! Though they appear close, Jupiter is 460 million miles away while Uranus is another 1.5 billion miles beyond that. If you have a telescope, you can star hop your way to Uranus from Jupiter. A magnification of about 100x will show its tiny, pale blue disk.>>

<<From 1995 to 2006, Uranus's apparent magnitude fluctuated between +5.6 and +5.9, placing it just within the limit of naked eye visibility at +6.5. Its angular diameter is between 3.4 and 3.7 arcseconds, compared with 16 to 20 arcseconds for Saturn. At opposition, Uranus is visible to the naked eye in dark skies, and becomes an easy target even in urban conditions with binoculars. In larger amateur telescopes with an objective diameter of between 15 and 23 cm, the planet appears as a pale cyan disk with distinct limb darkening. With a large telescope of 25 cm or wider, cloud patterns, as well as some of the larger satellites, such as Titania and Oberon, may be visible.

Uranus had been observed on many occasions before its discovery as a planet, but it was generally mistaken for a star. The earliest recorded sighting was in 1690 when John Flamsteed observed the planet at least six times, cataloging it as 34 Tauri. The French astronomer Pierre Lemonnier observed Uranus at least twelve times between 1750 and 1769, including on four consecutive nights.

Sir William Herschel observed the planet on March 13, 1781 while in the garden of his house at 19 New King Street in the town of Bath, Somerset, but initially reported it (on April 26, 1781) as a "comet". Herschel "engaged in a series of observations on the parallax of the fixed stars", using a telescope of his own design.

He recorded in his journal "In the quartile near ζ Tauri … either [a] Nebulous star or perhaps a comet". On March 17, he noted, "I looked for the Comet or Nebulous Star and found that it is a Comet, for it has changed its place". When he presented his discovery to the Royal Society, he continued to assert that he had found a comet while also implicitly comparing it to a planet:
“The power I had on when I first saw the comet was 227. From experience I know that the diameters of the fixed stars are not proportionally magnified with higher powers, as planets are; therefore I now put the powers at 460 and 932, and found that the diameter of the comet increased in proportion to the power, as it ought to be, on the supposition of its not being a fixed star, while the diameters of the stars to which I compared it were not increased in the same ratio. Moreover, the comet being magnified much beyond what its light would admit of, appeared hazy and ill-defined with these great powers, while the stars preserved that lustre and distinctness which from many thousand observations I knew they would retain. The sequel has shown that my surmises were well-founded, this proving to be the Comet we have lately observed.”

Herschel notified the Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, of his discovery and received this flummoxed reply from him on April 23: "I don't know what to call it. It is as likely to be a regular planet moving in an orbit nearly circular to the sun as a Comet moving in a very eccentric ellipsis. I have not yet seen any coma or tail to it".

While Herschel continued to cautiously describe his new object as a comet, other astronomers had already begun to suspect otherwise. Russian astronomer Anders Johan Lexell was the first to compute the orbit of the new object and its nearly circular orbit led him to a conclusion that it was a planet rather than a comet. Berlin astronomer Johann Elert Bode described Herschel's discovery as "a moving star that can be deemed a hitherto unknown planet-like object circulating beyond the orbit of Saturn". Bode concluded that its near-circular orbit was more like a planet than a comet.

The object was soon universally accepted as a new planet. By 1783, Herschel himself acknowledged this fact to Royal Society president Joseph Banks: "By the observation of the most eminent Astronomers in Europe it appears that the new star, which I had the honour of pointing out to them in March 1781, is a Primary Planet of our Solar System." In recognition of his achievement, King George III gave Herschel an annual stipend of £200 on the condition that he move to Windsor so that the Royal Family could have a chance to look through his telescopes.>>

[Beyond]

(especially last winter)

NOW you tell us

[wktaylor]

Splendid reply guys! Thanks a bunch! WKT