Uranus had been observed on many occasions before its recognition as a planet, but it was generally mistaken for a star.
He discovered Uranus accidentally with his telescope while surveying all stars down to those about 10 times dimmer than can be seen by the naked eye. One "star" seemed different, and within a year Uranus was shown to follow a planetary orbit. The object was soon universally accepted as a new planet.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and was the first planet to be discovered with the use of a telescope. Uranus’ most unique feature is that its axis sideways in comparison to other planets i.e. its north and south poles are in line with where other planets have their equators. Uranus is named after the Greek sky deity Ouranos, the earliest of the lords of the heavens.
The only spacecraft to visit Uranus is Voyager 2 which passed in 1986 passing at a distance of 81,500 km.
Uranus has two sets of rings, nine inner rings and two outer rings.
The first set of rings was discovered in 1977 and the second set was discovered in 2003 by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Although Uranus is visible to the naked eye, just like the classical planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn — it was long mistaken as a star because of the planet’s dimness and slow orbit.