Random thought from the past

[PSALM19.1 (Shaun)]

Hi. The other day I remembered seeing a "planet" in the eastern morning sky (NSW) with a 60mm refractor (which I no longer have) between the dates of Feb 2013 and Aug 2013 (this was the amount of time I had the refractor before replacing it with a Dob!). I wondered at the time what it was and sort of left it at that. I had a squizz at my Astronomy Australia 2013 book the other day and narrowed it down to 3 possibilities: Mercury, Neptune or Uranus. Now, I could rule out Mercury because, even though I was pretty "green" back then, I would have noticed the bright star-like shining of Mercury and the planet I saw was hardly visible to my eye (if I recall correctly - oh and, I found it by sheer accident too!). So I'm left with either Uranus or Neptune...question is: can Neptune be seen with a 60mm refractor? If not, then I guess it was Uranus! (Had fund narrowing this down - even had to find a Visa transaction to see when I bought the Refractor too!) Well, hope y'all don't think I've gone loco, but it just bugged me.....

[julianh72 (Julian)]

Was the sky brightening when you saw it, or was it still pitch black?

Uranus (Mag 5.9 or thereabouts) is barely visible to the naked eye in perfect viewing conditions; you would have had to have pretty exceptional vision to be able to see it in the morning sky. Neptune is a telescope-only object, at Mag. 8. Both would be visible with a 60 mm refractor, but I'd be surprised if you could resolve either as much more than a "star" anyway.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Shaun
The obvious question is, how do you know it was a planet?
If it was showing a disc, that is not conclusive as if it was low in the sky, bright stars can appear fuzzy or even as small discs in a scope.

Malcolm

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Originally Posted by barx1963

Shaun
The obvious question is, how do you know it was a planet?
If it was showing a disc, that is not conclusive as if it was low in the sky, bright stars can appear fuzzy or even as small discs in a scope.

Malcolm

Shaun,

Malcolm brings up a good question. Thing is, Uranus is visible in a 60mm refractor - I've spotted it easily in a 30mm finder. AND it is also visible naked eye! if you know where to look and have a decent dark sky. But the disk it shows is not big. Very, very little, and in the thermally challenged low horizon EVERY star shows a disk...

Neptune you can forget about for the position you allude to it being - low in the sky. It is visible in a 60mm refractor, but it will show no disk at all. It's disk is smaller than Uranus' (bloody small remember). I've seen it in my scopes, but unless seeing conditions are perfect, and your optics can handle the magnification, you have no way of making out a disk. Uranus is also at around magnitude 5.6, not bright, but enough to be an easy scope object. Neptune though has a very striking way if making itself known - it is gorgeous blue colour. Too blue to be a star, which would appear white rather than blue. I mean like saphire blue. It is also not bright, magnitude 8.

Mercury is also very, very small. Too small to show a distinguishable disk at that low altitude. It will appear bloated, but so will stars at that elevation too.

Now, not doubting that you may have seen a planet. But things are stacked up against you from the information you've provided. Just too many variables. The Eastern horizon is very wide, your description is just too vague, and the range of dates wayyyy too wide for a single viewing confirmation. AND, from your own affirmation, you were very 'green' with astro, so your experience would have not allowed you to be more critical of your observation. Now, given the same circumstances today, but with your experience now, you would be much better able to determine your question for yourself, or provide more helpful information for us to help...

Any advance on info?

Alex.

[glenc (Glen)]

It sounds like Mercury. You would have trouble seeing a disc on Uranus and Neptune with a 60mm scope.
In 2013 Mercury was in the morning sky at the end of March and the end of July. (Greatest elongation west)

[PSALM19.1 (Shaun)]

Good food for thought guys! Could well have been a star, given that it was not high in the sky at all and, well, pitch black...no, not as I recall! I'm not really able to come up with more info than the vague-aries above. If it happened now, I'd have great apps and books to sort out exactly what I was looking at, oh, and a trusty Dob to make it all much clearer!

Thanks Alex for the Neptune hunting wisdom; I've tracked down a fair bit of stuff over the past couple of years, but I can honestly say that I'm just not sure whether I've seen Neptune or not! I've found Uranus plenty, but every time I go Neptune hunting, I come away a little empty One day, I'll pack up my scope for the night and smile, KNOWING I've seen my favourite planet!