August 21, 2026: Use the Pleiades star cluster, 37 and 39 Tauri, and nearby reference stars to locate Uranus before morning twilight. Follow this binocular guide to identify the Tilted World.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:05 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:42 p.m. CDT. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
Venus as an Evening Star
Planet Uranus
Look for Uranus in the eastern sky in a darker sky before morning twilight begins.
The Tilted World is visible to the unassisted eye from a dark rural location without outdoor lighting.
The planet was identified as a star on older star maps. Through a telescope in 1781, William Herschel noticed it moved. Eventually, its solar orbit was calculated to be nearly twice Saturn’s distance from the sun and over 19 times Earth’s distance from the sun, where it revolves around the sun in nearly 85 years.
In Binocular Field with Star Cluster
Uranus currently fits tightly into the same binocular field with the Pleiades star cluster, an easy guide. Resembling a miniature dipper, the stellar bundle is over halfway up in the east-southeast. The cluster is often first seen with peripheral vision without purposely looking for it.
Inspect the mostly blue-white stars in the cluster with a binocular. A few dozen stars are easily visible. Next, shift the binocular downward slightly so that the stellar bundle’s brightest stars are at the top of the field. Find a pair of stars, 37 and 39 Tauri (37 Tau and 39 Tau), to the lower left of the field’s center. Uranus is near the bottom of the field in this orientation and is likely a difficult view with the Pleiades in the same field.
Note that 37 Tauri is noticeably dimmer than the brightest Pleiades members. Star 39 Tauri is about 25% as bright as 37 Tauri and about the same brightness as Uranus.
Detailed Look
Shift the binocular a little farther downward so that stars 37 and 39 Tauri are above the center. Then four stars — Omega, 51, 53, and 56 Tauri (ω Tau, 51 Tau, 53 Tau, and 56 Tau) — are visible to the lower left of the field’s center. Omega is about the same brightness as 37 Tauri, while the other three nearly match 39 Tauri’s brightness.
Aquamarine Uranus is 1.1° to Omega Tauri’s upper right and one-third of the way from Omega Tauri to 37 Tauri.
Uranus’ eastward motion is very slow, so for the next several nights it remains approximately in the same location. Look for it until the bright moon enters the sky and its light veils the planet and dimmer stars. As the moon wanes through the crescent phase sequence, the planet becomes easier to see again.
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