Today In Astronomical History - Uranus!

On March 13th, 1781, William Herschel first observed Uranus using a telescope of his own design while in the garden of his house at 19 New King Street in the town of Bath, Somerset, England, which is now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy.

He reported it a month later on April 26th, but as a comet. He insisted it for a while, but other astronomers deduced otherwise. By 1783, Herschel jumped on the bandwagon and acknowledged it as a planet too. 

Uranus had been observed a bunch of times before, but it was usually mistaken for a star. The earliest recorded observation of Uranus was in 1690 when John Flamsteed cataloged it at least six times as 34 Tauri.

French astronomer Pierre Lemonnier observed Uranus at least twelve times between 1750 and 1769. 

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius at 15,759 miles (25,362 km) with a surface area of 3.121 billion sq miles (8.083 billion km²).

With a mass of 86.81E24 kg, it has the fourth largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is also has the coldest planetary atmosphere in the solar system   with a minimum temperature of 49 K (−224.2 °C). Uranus is icy and windy

Uranus has 27 moons orbiting it. The five major ones are Miranda, Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel, Puck and Cupid, and are named after characters from Shakespeare's work.

Discover More Facts:

http://www.space.com/45-uranus-seventh-planet-in-earths-solar-system-was-first-discovered-planet.html