Uranus to shine bright in the night sky tonight – how to see it

URANUS has reached opposition meaning you could spot it in the night sky.

You’ve got a good chance of spotting the planet shining brightly if you have a pair of binoculars and clear skies this evening.

Alamy

Uranus is a blueish planet and can be hard to spot from Earth[/caption]

A planet at opposition means it’s at its closest point to Earth.

Uranus will still be 1.74 billion miles away so it just looks like a small blue-green dot.

It’s possible to see the planet with the naked eye but you’re better off looking with binoculars for a better view.

Look towards the eastern horizon after sunset and late into the evening.

Uranus will appear as a small dot beneath the faint Aries constellation.

They’ll be a slim waxing crescent moon this evening, meaning the sky should be nice and dark for stargazing.

You should head somewhere with limited light pollution and a clear view of the horizon.

If you’re unsure what you’re looking at you could always download a night sky scanning app that lets your smartphone pinpoint constellations and stars.

Make sure you give your eyes a break from your phone afterwards though, stargazing is best when your eyes have adjusted to the dark.

Stargazing apps for Android and iPhone include: SkyView Lite, Star Tracker and Star Walk 2.

Some apps are free but a lot of them charge so it depends if you want to put up with adverts or not.

It’s advisable to read the reviews of an app and look at how many people have rated it before downloading.

• Get all the latest Science news
• Keep up-to-date with the top Space & Astronomy stories
• All the latest Archaelogy news from dinosaurs to Ancient artefacts

In other news, three entirely new lifeforms were recently discovered at different locations onboard the International Space Station.

Nasa has announced that it is accepting applications for wannabe space explorers who wish to fire their names to the Red Planet.

And, the Perseverance Mars rover has revealed stunning video and audio recordings from the surface of the Red Planet.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]