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The Moons of Uranus

Well, four of them.

From YouTube via Astronomy Picture of the Day for 30/11/21.

A time-lapse video of Uranus and its four largest moons Titania, Oberon, Umbriel and Ariel, captured by the Bayfordsbury Observatorybased in Hertfordshire, England. The whole sequence takes up four hours in real time.

The cross of the diffraction spike is an artefact of the telescope used.

The apparent movement of Uranus is actually due to the orbit of Earth round the sun, changing the angle of view. The diffraction spike’s rotation appears because of the rotation of the Earth.

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