Spark and Perl go looking
Why are we going over the top?
Because this planet is lying down.
It rolls round the Sun instead of spinning upright.
Did it fall over?
Something knocked it, long ago, and it never got up.
So one end gets summer for years?
Years of daylight.
Then years of dark.
Imagine the bedtimes.
Can there be spring, summer, autumn or winter there?
The middle of the planet gets two summers.
…The Sun crosses it on the way there and again on the way back.
Two summers in the middle and one at the poles.
At the pole spring is morning, summer is midday, autumn is evening and winter is night.
In the middle the days come and go faster, and spring, summer, autumn and winter each come twice a year.
Twice every trip round the Sun.
I shall lie down with it and wait for the summer.
You would keep falling.
…There is nothing to lie ON.
Air, then cloud, then thicker cloud, and no ground and no rock anywhere.
That is right.
Just about — and it looks exactly like a faint star.
Draw where it is, come back next month, and one dot will have shuffled sideways.
You can see it from anywhere in the world — but not every night. Sometimes it is hiding in the light of the Sun.
Where to find Uranus, and when
Where the Earth is clear, it climbs high in the sky. The darker it gets, the lower it stays. Where it is black, it never comes up. No shading at all: it does not matter where you live.
What do I need to see Uranus?
Binoculars with 10× magnification show it, if you rest them on a fence or a wall.
A 150 mm telescope is what shows it properly. This picture is about 200× — which is what that telescope gives on a good night.
At that magnification it drifts out of view while you watch.
Put the planets in size orderPut the planets in orderJump the solar systemCould you stand on a planet or moon?Eyes, binoculars, or telescope?Which one does not belong?
Space
Put the planets in size order
Read on
Go and look