By Sam Showalter | 2023-12-30
On 01/02/2024 06:15 pm by Steven Bellavia| Southold, NY
Uranus has 27 moons, all of which are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The moons are divided into three groups: thirteen inner moons, nine irregular moons, and the five major moons. The five major moons, in size order, from largest to smallest: Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda. Four of these five are visible with "amateur" telescopes. Miranda is magnitude 16.5, so perhaps visible in an "amateur" 25-inch telescope.
I find it amazing that William Herschel was able to see (and discover) Titania and Oberon, in 1787, only 6 years after he discovered the planet itself, using his home-built 18.8-inch telescope.
Umbriel and Ariel were not discovered for another 64 years by William Lassell in 1851. Miranda was discovered in 1948, by Gerard Kuiper.
TSO-115mm, f/7 triplet refractor
ZWO ASI 294MM Pro camera
SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro-mount
Best 500 frames from a 10-minute video at 500msec, aligned and stacked with Lucien AstroSurface