(Continued from page 11)

only our own planet Earth moving in its yearly orbit around the sun. Every year, we fly between the sun and Uranus in our smaller, faster orbit.
• Uranus is barely visible to the human eye even under excellent conditions. To view Uranus yourself, you will need clear, dark skies and probably a good pair of binoculars and a detailed sky chart. You would search for Uranus in the vicinity of the Great Square of Pegasus and the "Circlet" in the constellation Pisces the Fish.
• Uranus was the first planet discovered since ancient times, and the first discovered by the telescope. British astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered it in 1781. All of a sudden, the radius of the known planetary system doubled in size, from approximately 10 times the Earth's distance from the sun to about 20 times the Earth's distance. Before the discovery of Uranus, Saturn - the 6th planet from the sun - was the farthest known solar system planet.
• Interestingly, although Uranus technically can be seen by the unaided human eye and quite possibly was seen before, no one knew it was a planet. Try your luck after the moon leaves the evening sky in a week or two, but be sure to have binoculars and a sky chart handy.
•