Skywatch: The Seven Little Sisters will lead you to Planet George this week

You ve got a great chance to see the planet George this week in our skies as it has a very close celestial hug with the best open star cluster in the heavens the Pleiades star cluster otherwise known as the Seven Little Sisters In Greek mythology the seven little sisters are the daughters of Atlas the banished king of the gods who was pushed out by Zeus and his gang Not only was Atlas banished he was given a never-ending task of holding up the world I m sure you ve seen paintings of poor Atlas The new gods had mercy on his daughters and transformed them into the bright star cluster that resembles a tiny Little Dipper Mike Lynch The Pleiades jump out at you after evening twilight in the very low east-northeast sky You can t miss it Most of people can see six to seven stars with the naked eye but plenty of more with even a small telescope or binoculars It s a young group of stars that were all born together out of a giant cloud of hydrogen gas about million years ago The young stars shine out at you from over light-years away If you own a small telescope direct it at the Pleiades and then slowly pan it to the lower right of the cluster about three and a half to four degrees That s roughly the width of three of your fingers held together at arm s length Look for a fuzzy bluish-green star It certainly won t be very bright but it ll be the next brightest star to the lower right of the Pleiades That s the planet George billion miles from Earth and that s the closest George has been in about a year Before you think I ve totally lost my celestial marbles I have to tell you that planet George was the original name given to the planet we now know as Uranus the seventh planet out from the sun Uranus was discovered by the famous German-born British astronomer William Herschel on March Previous to his discovery Saturn was considered the the bulk distant planet in our solar system Herschel was a brilliant mathematician and composer as well as a brilliant astronomer who constructed over telescopes including a huge -ft telescope the biggest one in the world at the time He was also a very loyal subject of British King George III so he named his new planet George in the king s honor Not only was he fond of King George but the monarch provided funding for all of his astronomical adventures The name George for Herschel s new planet didn t fly for too long in the rest of the astronomical world and eventually the name of the planet was changed to Uranus after the Greek god who was the grandfather of Zeus king of the gods By the way the proper pronunciation of Uranus is YOUR-uh-nus not your-RAIN-nus When it s mispronounced it unfailingly gets giggles from at least several school kids Uranus is one of the large gaseous giant planets mainly made up of hydrogen and helium gas but it also has water ammonia and methane which give it a bluish appearance It s over miles in diameter about four times the diameter of Earth It rotates on its axis much faster than the Earth once every hours and what s really weird is that the axis of rotation is tilted on its side Uranus s north and south poles are where the equators are on the other planets in our solar system on the same plane as its orbital path around the sun By the way it takes Uranus Earth years to make just one circuit around the sun If you re planning to movement to George anytime soon in a spaceship that has a top speed of mph about the same speed as a fast bullet it ll take you just under years to get there Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis St Paul He is the author of Stars a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications net Mike is available for private star parties You can contact him at mikewlynch comcast net Related Articles Skywatch Holiday telescope shopping guide Skywatch Long starry nights are back Skywatch Celestial monsters and a ghost Skywatch The great flying horse of the sky Skywatch The ribbon of wonder and two evening comets