Uranus close to Venus

[seeker372011]

Anyone observed Uranus in the last couple of days? I see from "Starry Planet" that Uranus is about a degree -one finger's width for an outstretched hand -from Venus and bright enough to see easily but unfortunately cloud cover all this week and into the weekend over here :(

[Tiny]

Better save some money for a telescope... :P

[TheThorn]

No need for a telescope.

I checked it out last night with my 7x50 binoculars. Uranus was easily visible to the lower right of Venus, in the same binocular field of view. And that was from indoors, through my patio doors. The sky was crystal clear, but the temperature was -35 C (that's -31 F for the metrically challenged), so I really didn't want to go outside.

Showed my kids, but it was just a pinpoint of light, so they weren't anywhere near as thrilled as I was.

I'd never seen Uranus before.

[Tiny]

clear sky T-T...it depends on where you live :( too bad I live in San Francisco, and the weather here is bad as always and too many lights around...

[TheThorn]

Yeah, we're blessed. I live in a little place called Goulais River, in Canada.

Very clear skies on a regular basis, and city lights just make a barely visible smudge on my southern horizon. On most clear nights I can see all the stars of the little dipper (which would probably be a rare occurrence for you), and the Milky way has been known to make visitors from town gasp. And northern lights are a frequent enough occurrence here that my kids can't be bothered to go outside to look any more.

And I'm way up north, just 25 miles north of Michigan, so those -35 nights are also a rare occurrence. The best of both worlds. Except for all the snow that Lake Superior dumps on us this time of year.