My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 02.2019 | Page 59

BOOK REVIEW by David Dickinson
Into the Future
URANUS, NEPTUNE, PLUTO: A Longer View
Guy Ottewell
Universal Workshop, 2018
73 pages, ISBN 978-0-934546-75-1
$19.95, softcover.
IT’S FASCINATING TO CONSIDER
what happens in our sky over the long
term. I recently encountered just such
a farsighted celestial outlook in Guy
Ottewell’s new book, Uranus, Neptune,
Pluto: A Longer View, published by
Ottewell’s own Universal Workshop.
Well-known in the astronomical com-
munity as the creator of the annual
Astronomical Calendar, which ran from
1974 to 2016, Ottewell lends a unique
artistic eye to his astronomical views of
the near and far future.
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto looks at the
outermost planetary bodies of our solar
system, discussing where they’ve been,
what they’ve traversed since they were
discovered, and where they’re headed,
complete with orbital resonances, con-
junctions, and peculiarities. Ottewell
accompanies his astronomical perspec-
tives with unique star charts showing
the orbits and paths of the outer planets
with a look familiar to longtime readers
of his Astronomical Calendar.
Ottewell presents an excellent
consideration of the future of our solar
system’s outer worlds. It’s sobering to
think, for example, that Neptune has
journeyed around the ecliptic only once
since its discovery in 1846, complet-
ing one 165-year orbit only recently (in
2011) to return to its original discovery
point in Capricornus near its border
with Aquarius. And remote Pluto has
only moved from Gemini, where Clyde
Tombaugh discovered it in 1930, to its
present position in the star-rich fields
of Sagittarius.
Strip charts created by the author
show the celestial paths of the outer
planets through the coming decades,
and their future course through the
constellations. There’s an especially
interesting discussion on the motions
of the moons of the outer planets over
the coming years and how to view them
from the Earth. Ottewell also describes
the sky as viewed from each of the plan-
ets (for example, one pole star for Pluto
is currently naked-eye Epsilon Aquarii).
Another fun fact from the book: The
first transit of a Uranian moon (Ariel)
was captured by the Hubble Space Tele-
scope on July 26, 2006.
So much for the almost present
tense: Ottewell also follows the strange
worlds of the far solar system into the
distant future. He notes the peculiar
circumstances of the 1993 conjunction
of Uranus and Neptune, and that one
planet laps the other in their journeys
around the Sun in just a little less than
once every 172 years. Perhaps Uranus
will actually occult (pass in front of)
Neptune many years from now. Both
are small targets, though, with Uranus
presenting a 4″-disk near opposition,
and Neptune an even smaller one at
2.4″ across. Seeing this event would be a
true observing victory.
This got me thinking, so I ran some
simulations in Occult 4.2 and Stellar-
ium. I discovered no true occultations
of Neptune by Uranus between now and
AD 10,000. The nearest runner-up will
be a close 27″ conjunction on Novem-
ber 2, 4567 (mark your calendars). Let’s
see, by then I’ll be . . .
The fi rst edition of the book contains
a very few grammatical errors, but they
Ottewell presents an excellent
consideration of the future of our
solar system’s outer worlds.
were addressed by Ottewell in subse-
quent printings. And I was surprised
that no “eye candy” images of Pluto
courtesy of NASA’s New Horizons fl yby
in 2015 were included in the book.
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto: A Longer
View is a great volume for observers
of the outer planets. If you read and
loved Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar,
consider this compendium a deeper dive
into these fascinating worlds. On his
website ( universalworkshop.com/blog ),
Ottewell mentions the possibility of a
similar book for the planet Venus; that’s
something to look forward to. Now, we
just need to perfect time travel, so we
can follow all these curious planetary
events into the future.
¢ DAVID DICKINSON is a freelance sci-
ence writer, high school science teacher,
retired enlisted U.S. Air Force veteran,
and avid stargazer. He also writes sci-
ence fi ction in his spare time, and he
shares the universe and more on his
own website, astroguyz.com. He, with
Frasier Cain, is author of The Universe
Today Ultimate Guide to Viewing the
Cosmos. He currently resides with his
wife, Myscha, in the Tampa Bay area.
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