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From: dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: StarDate: June 24 Seven Months to Uranus
Message-ID: <275@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Jun-85 02:00:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.275
Posted: Mon Jun 24 02:00:27 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 01:12:36 EDT
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 36


When the Voyager spacecraft encounters Uranus, that outer world will
have just come back to our predawn sky.  More -- after this.

June 24  Seven Months to Uranus

Besides Earth and the other planets, there's another noteworthy body
now also moving through the solar system.  It's a spacecraft launched
from our world in 1977 -- Voyager 2 -- soon to encounter the giant
outer world Uranus.

Voyager 2 has already provided clear sharp images of the outer planets
Jupiter and Saturn, and their moons.  It'll soon become the first
spacecraft from Earth to visit Uranus and its moons -- with its closest
approach exactly seven months from today -- on January 24, 1986.

As Voyager moves toward Uranus, it's interesting to think about the
Earth and Uranus moving with respect to each other.  This month the
planet Uranus reached its opposition to the sun -- when the outer world
appeared opposite the sun in our sky.  On June 6, the Earth and Uranus
were lined up momentarily on one side of the sun -- before Earth,
moving faster in orbit, pulled ahead of Uranus.

Our world will be traveling ahead of Uranus in orbit for most of the
rest of this year -- until we've moved so far ahead that Uranus is
directly behind the sun from our vantagepoint -- on December 10.

Around then, late this year, Uranus will be lost from our view.  It'll
be in the glare of the sun until shortly before its history-making
encounter with Voyager 2 -- exactly seven months from today.  Then,
just weeks before the encounter, Uranus will reappear in our sky -- to
be visible to observers with binoculars before the sun comes up at
dawn.

Script by Deborah Byrd.
(c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin