Friday,  September 28, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 073 • 11 of 39 •  Other Editions

• Everything you need to know: Harvest Moon 2012
• The opposition of Uranus comes on September 29 at 7 hours Universal Time (2:00 a.m. Central Time). However, the Earth swings closest to Uranus for the year on September 28, at 13 hours Universal Time (8:00 a.m. Central Time). Earth doesn't come closest to Uranus precisely at opposition. That's because the orbits of Earth and Uranus aren't perfect circles, and the orbital planes of the two planets don't perfectly coincide. All the same, Uranus's closest approach to Earth always happens on or near its opposition date.
• Opposition is the astronomical word used to describe a planet that's opposite the sun in Earth's sky. At opposition, planets rise at about sunset and set at about sunrise, a bit like a full moon. What's really happening here? Nothing at all unusual. It's

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