Uranus question

In June of 2001 (shortly after fate met the Light Cup ;-), I looked at Uranus for the first time with my 4" TV-102 APO refractor. Being newbie-est :-( at the time, it was like "I came, I saw, I went" observation and indubitably didn't see any details but the color.

This year, arming with an 8" Dob, I'm dying to revisit this nearest of the outer planets. Also, being planetary newbie-er ;-), I'd like to gather some info in preparation for it. Dobbins/Parker/Capen book showed some sketches made by a 4-inch refractor that showed some details and O'Meara' sketches showed remarkable details with the 9-inch Clark. So if I can ask you experienced deep sky Uranusian ;-)
some questions.

- What features have you seen? With which telescope/aperture?

- Which color filters do you find useful with small scopes and/or 8-inch aperture? (Can you give the Wratten #?)

- I realize that Uranus polar axis is tilted east-west. But it spins west-east like Jupiter, right? Its rotation period is roughly 17 hour. However, Dobbins/Parker/Capan book confuses me in that it mentioned "... there are some years that we see the planet's equatorial regions and others when we see one of its poles." I don't understand how this could be if the planet's rotation is roughly 17 hours, we should be able to see the entire planet over the course of one month, right? Please help me try to understand this.

Many thanks in advance.

Ron B[ee]

Hi Ron,

Good to see you continuing to challenge and hone your skills!

Last year as I was preparing for the Mars opposition, Uranus fairly close to Mars in the southern sky.

I spied it with my 9.25 SCT, I did not use any filters.

I was able to make it out as a blue globe, but no surface detail was detected. At 47 degrees N, I don't think it ever got more than 30 degrees above the horizon for me.

Good luck with your challenge!
Steve

Sometimes the poles are pointed towards us and sometimes the equatoral regions as Uranus revoles around the sun different parts of the planet are pointed toward the inner solar system, its just like the earth in january the south poles is tilted toward the sun in spring and fall neither is etc, its just that Uranus's tilt is so exaggerated that we only see its poles or midsection as it rolls around in its orbit. BTW all I've ever seen on Uranus is a greenish-blue ball, I really don't see how any amateur could see anything on such a distant planet even Voyager showed very little detail on this big gasbag, i'm just find it hard to believe any small 4" refractor will see anything but a small green disk.