Ancient astronomers could only map and study the objects that could be seen with the naked eye - the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets closest to Earth - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

What makes Uranus so important in astronomy is that it was the very first planet to be discovered by the use of a telescope. Suddenly, since the dawn of knowledge, the number of planets increased to six. What was happening to the Universe?

Uranus was discovered by English Astronomer, William Herschel, in 1781, and this turned him into an overnight celebrity. The reason why you need a telescope to find Uranus is because of its distance from the Sun - which makes it quite a faint planet. In fact, further out, Neptune wasn't discovered until 1846 and Pluto was only discovered in 1930.

Herschel named the planet Georgium Sidum in honour of the then King George III. In turn King George III gave William the title of "The King’s Astronomer", a great honour with a life’s pension. The name of Uranus was suggested by the German Astronomer, Johann Bode, who proposed that the planet be named after the father of Saturn, in line with classical traditions. Although it was being called the Georgian Planet and indeed Herschel until 1850.

Uranus is one of the great gas giants of the solar system. It is four times larger than the Earth. Fairly featureless, all that can be seen in even the most massive of telescopes is the tops of its gassy atmosphere.

The most unusual aspect of Uranus is that its axis is tilted so much that it appears to spin on its side, similar to the way a ball rolls along the ground. It has five main moons - the first discovered in 1787, the last in 1948. In order of diustance from the planet they are: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.

We got our first close-up view of the planet when NASA's Voyager II space probe came within 81,500 Kilometers of Uranus’ cloud tops on 24th January 1984. The craft sent back thousands of images and scientific data on the planet and its 5 moons - and discovered 10 more smaller ones!

Although it is very tricky, Uranus is just visible to the unaided eye. However, if you have a small telescope, Uranus will appear as a small greenish-blue disk.