David's Astronomy Pages Notes - CCD Session 22 (2002-08-31 / 2002-09-01)

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Identification of Uranian Moons

It was suspected that CCD Images of Uranus taken on 2002-09-01 showed 3 Uranian moons.

Uranus + 3 moons ?

2002-09-01  00:58h UT CCD Image, 6 x 5 sec exposure (2x2) 11.4 x 7.6 arc min  (#22077-82)

The "UranianSats" Visual Ephemeris program by Dennis W. Tracey (http://www.winnipeg.rasc.ca/ftp/dtracy/ ) was used to identify that two of the objects were the uranian moons Oberon and Titania.  They lie at the distance and direction from Uranus that is predicted by the Ephemeris program. 

The third object was initially thought to be Ariel, but along with the other main moons, Miranda and Umbriel, it can not be seen as it lies too close to Uranus to be separated in this CCD image.  Light from Uranus (Mag +5.8) is spread out to a diameter of 28 arc secs in this image (compared to its true apparent diameter of 3.4 arc secs).  Ariel lying at predicted distance of 13.6 arc sec is just within the circular spread of light from Uranus. Enhanced image processing was also unable to confirm the presence of a third object.

Uranus, Oberon & Titania

2002-09-01  00:58h UT Enhanced CCD Image, 6 x 5 sec exposure (2x2) 11.4 x 7.6 arc min  (#22077-82)

Oberon has a calibrated magnitude of +14.6, estimated using CCDSoft Software. Titania is too close to Uranus to allow software to estimate its magnitude. A rough estimate suggest that its magnitude lies between +14 and +15.

Catalog magnitudes of offset stars/Calibrated Magnitude of Oberon

2002-09-01  00:58h UT Enhanced CCD Image, 6 x 5 sec exposure (2x2) 11.4 x 7.6 arc min  (#22077-82)

See also : Uranian moon identification in images taken on 2002-09-13

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