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If you want to watch the planet frigid Uranus this week, look towards the full moon.
The Hunter's Moon Rises Tonight (Oct. 24) – in New York City it comes up at 6:30 pm local time – and will sit by Uranus, which gets a prime viewing location at opposition yesterday. This is a cosmic coincidence that makes finding Uranus easier, but to see Uranus in its full glory, you'll have to wait a few days.
A planet is easier to observe when it's at opposition. Since Uranus will appear directly opposite the sun in Earth's sky, Uranus will rise to the sun and will be visible all night. The gas giant planet will be on the horizon in most locations. [The Moon: 10 Surprising Lunar Facts]
The moon will be in the constellation Cetus (the Whale) when it makes its way to Uranus, according to imagery from the SkySafari app.
This sky map shows where to find Uranus when the planet is at opposition on Oct. 23, 2018, at 8:33 pm EDT (0033 GMT on Oct. 22), as seen from New York City (41 degrees latitude).
Credit: SkySafari App
And why wait a few days after the full moon to check out Uranus? Well, the glare from the Hunter's Moon will make it tricky to see the planet, according to Space.com columnist Chris Vaughan from the SkySafari app. Butt do gauze up at Uranus! This is the brightest time to view the planet, but binoculars are recommended.
This composite image, created in 2004 with Keck Observatory adaptive telescope optics, shows Uranus' two hemispheres.
Credit: Lawrence Sromovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison / W.W. Keck Observatory
The seventh planet from the sun is peculiar. For one, it rotates on its side. Earth more or less rotates like a basketball spinning on the finger of a Harlem Globetrotter, and Uranus spins like a bowling ball. Uranus is also much colder than Neptune, a planet much farther away from the sun. Some scientists postulate that an impact from a rock
Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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