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There is a rare pleasure on the horizon this week when the planet Uranus is getting closer to Earth. This occurs simultaneously with its opposition to the Sun and means that conditions are conducive to a glimpse of the planet elusive to the naked eye.
The reason to see Uranus at the naked eye is so exciting because it's the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope, but you might be able to see it now without the Using telescopes or binoculars.
William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. Although he was born in Germany, Herschel emigrated to England at the age of 19 as a musician and did not begin his serious astronomical research until he was 30 years old.
When he discovered Uranus, Herschel hoped to pay tribute to his boss, King George of England, by suggesting to his colleagues to call the new planet "Georgium sidus" (the Georgian planet). But it was in the 1780s, and at the time, King George was not a man as popular as the rebellion of his American colonists and the French who sought the revolution.
It's the German astronomer Johan Elert Bode who suggested the name Uranus for the planet, but even that name has not been used fluently before 50 years old!
The name Uranus refers to the Greek god of heaven, about which it is written: "Since nothing is, properly speaking, created, but procreated, some have said that Uranus (Heaven) is the son from Gaia (Earth), Shortly after Chaos, Uranus, who was the first ruler of the Universe, covered Gaia from all sides and became, with time, the home of the gods. "
Herschel died in England in 1822, at the age of 84, the same number of years that it takes his planet, Uranus, to complete an orbit of the Sun. Look for Uranus in the southeast this week, a blue-green dot among the Pisces stars.
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