Where is Uranus tonight?

How to recognize Uranus with the naked eye

Uranus shines at about magnitude 5.7, according to the British Astronomical Association (BAA); NASA’s fact sheet gives 5.6 as its average at opposition. The magnitude scale runs backward: lower numbers are brighter. In John Bortle’s dark-sky scale, published by Sky & Telescope, the faintest stars visible from a suburban sky are around magnitude 5.6 to 6.0, and from a rural sky around 6.6 to 7.0. That puts Uranus at the edge of what the eye can see from the suburbs and within reach from the countryside. The BAA says it is technically a naked-eye object, but only for observers with good eyesight under a dark, transparent sky.

Even when you can see it, Uranus looks exactly like a faint star. There is no color and no disk to give it away. The only reliable way to identify it is to know where it is, using the constellation shown in the table above and a finder chart from an astronomy app or magazine, and to compare the stars in that patch of sky.

What binoculars and a small telescope show

Binoculars are the right tool. The BAA notes that they show Uranus easily as a star-like point. Start from a bright star or the Moon in the same constellation, then step along to Uranus using a chart. Once you have found it, note its position against two or three nearby stars and check again a few nights later. It will have moved slightly, which no star does.

A telescope begins to show its true nature. According to the BAA, even a 3-inch (75 mm) telescope shows that Uranus is not quite a point, and a 6-inch (150 mm) instrument reveals a clear tiny disk with a pale hint of color; telescopes larger than about 12 inches show distinct pale blue-green tones. NASA’s fact sheet gives an apparent size of only 3.3 to 4.1 arcseconds, about a tenth of Jupiter’s. Surface detail is beyond backyard telescopes; the BAA says it takes large apertures and cameras.

Why its visibility comes and goes

Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the Sun, so in a single year it hardly moves, and Earth catches up with it a little more than once a year. NASA’s fact sheet gives a synodic period of 369.66 days, so each opposition comes about four to five days later than the year before.

At opposition, Uranus is opposite the Sun in our sky. It rises around sunset, is up all night and is at its brightest, though the change in brightness over the year is small. In the months after opposition, it is an evening object, setting earlier each night, until it disappears behind the Sun at conjunction for a few weeks. It then returns to the morning sky. Because it moves so slowly, Uranus stays in the same constellation for years, which makes it easier to find again once you know the area.

Tips for seeing Uranus

• Go dark for the naked-eye try. A rural sky, where stars fainter than magnitude 6.5 show, gives you a real chance; city skies rule it out. Our dark-sky places page lists certified sites by state.
• Wait for a moonless night. Moonlight brightens the sky enough to hide Uranus from the naked eye.
• Look near opposition. The planet is highest around midnight and best placed for the longest time in the weeks around opposition; the date is in the table above.
• Use the Moon or a bright planet as a signpost. When one passes near Uranus, it makes a handy starting point for binocular hopping.

For more on finding faint planets, see our guide to finding planets, and for the others visible tonight, the planets page.