Stalking Uranus: A Complete Guide to the 2014 Opposition Season

universetoday.com ^ | September 15, 2014 | David Dickinson on

[BenLurkin]

In 2014, opposition occurs at 21:00 Universal Time (UT)/5:00 PM EDT on October 7th. If this date sounds familiar, it’s because Full Moon and the second total lunar eclipse of 2014 and the ongoing lunar tetrad of eclipses occurs less than 24 hours afterwards. This puts Uranus extremely close to the eclipsed Moon, and a remote slice of the high Arctic will actually see the Moon occult (pass in front of) Uranus during totality. Such a coincidence is extremely rare: the last time the Moon occulted a naked eye planet during totality occurred back during Shakespearian times in 1591, when Saturn was covered by the eclipsed Moon. This close conjunction as seen from English soil possibly by the bard himself was mentioned in David Levy’s book and doctoral thesis The Sky in Early Modern English Literature, and a similar event involving Saturn occurs in 2344 AD.

[KoRn]

There has been SO MANY “Uranus” jokes, you’d think they would eventually just stop. Do people that post them believe they are saying something new and funny? At this point, such jokes are at the ‘1st grade’ level of “humor” lol. I’ve been on FR for a little over 10 years, and EVERY TIME that planet is mentioned, someone posts a stupid joke about the name of the planet, as if it’s something no one as ever heard before. LOL

I wish they would have gave that planet a different name to spare us from this sub-juvenile bullshit.

Damn, FReepers, grow up. Don’t act like DUmmies.

/RanOff