Dusk to dawn belongs to the ice giants this month, as Jupiter offers a spectacular view before dipping out of sight

Uranus marks a turning point in our exploration of the Solar System, discovered by William Herschel in 1781 from the city of Bath. Uranus is tipped on its side by 98 degrees - it appears to roll around the Sun, and currently its north pole is facing us at an angle of 50 degrees. Scientists are not sure why Uranus is on its side, but suspect a giant impact long ago may have knocked it over.

Uranus is an ice giant, which is a mysterious kind of gaseous world that also contains lots of ices - water, methane, nitrogen and so on - and our lack of knowledge about this kind of world is not helped by the fact that only one spacecraft has ever visited Uranus to explore it - NASA’s Voyager 2 mission back in 1986.