Hoping that Uranus reaching opposition would give me better results at photographing the planet with my 8" SCT I hurried along to beat the clouds that were quickly approaching tonight.

The planet was still rather low on the horizon so it was bouncing around a bit but I did manage to get the best shot so far of the planet. I don't think it will get much better than this with the 8" and although the only thing I did accomplish is possibly a bigger fuzzy disc than usual, it's pretty exciting to be able to capture this gas giant at 1.7313 billion miles away from my backyard.

I remember the first time I saw Uranus through the eyepiece. I had been unsuccessfully chasing it for a year with my old Newtonian non GOTO scope and could never find it. One of the first things I did when I got the SCT was slew over to Uranus and was so amazed to see the tiny blue disc in my eyepiece. I quickly called over to my girlfriend to see it. She wasn't as excited as I was. I quickly attached my DSLR to the scope and was able to capture the disc that night and to my surprise later that evening as I was reviewing my photo, some of its moons.

I'm not completely convinced that this is the best photo I can get of Uranus. Before I make up my mind, I want to do some more research on how to photograph Uranus and Neptune. I plan to try one more test when the planet is higher in the sky, but for now, I'll have to wait for the rain to stop.