This is a list of known observations of planets or dwarf planets that occurred before the discovery of the body. In each case, the observer did not recognize that the object was a planet.

Uranus

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Uranus is noticeably dimmer than the other classical planets, yet is still visible to the unaided eye in a dark sky.

Observer Date Reference and Notes
Hipparchos 128BC Possibly recorded as a star in his star catalogue that was later incorporated into Ptolemy's Almagest[1]
John Flamsteed 1690-12-23 He recorded as the star 34 Tauri[2]
1712-04-02 [2]
1715-03-04,05,10 [2]
1715-04-29 [2]
James Bradley 1748-10-21 [2]
1750-09-13 [2]
Pierre Charles Le Monnier 1750-10-14 [2]
1750-12-05 [2]
James Bradley 1753-12-03 [2]
Tobias Mayer 1756-09-25 [2]
Pierre Charles Le Monnier 1764-01-15 [2]
1768-12-27,30 [2]
1769-12-15,16,20,21,22,23 [2]
1771-12-18 [2]

Neptune

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Neptune is too dim to be seen without optical aid so no observations were possible before the invention of the telescope.

Observer Date Reference and Notes
Galileo 1612-12-28 Unknown to Galileo, he happened to be observing Jupiter before and after its occultation of Neptune on 1613-01-04[3][4]
Galileo 1613-01-27
Jérôme Lalande 1795-05-08,10 [5]
John Herschel 1830-07-14 Son of William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus[6]
James Challis 1846-08-04,12 He undertook a search for Neptune at the direction of George Airy, but did not realize until after Neptune's discovery the following month that he had twice observed the planet[7]

Pluto

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Observing Pluto requires, at minimum, a telescope with an aperture of around 30 cm (12 inches).[8] All of these observations were photographic ones.

Observer Date Reference and Notes
Yerkes Observatory 1909-08-21 [9]
1909-11-11 [9]
Konigstuhl Observatory 1914-01-23 Two observations that night[10]
Harvard Observatory 1914-11-12 [10]
Lowell Observatory 1915-03-19 Observed during an explicit search for Planet X but was not recognized[11][12]
1915-04-07 [11][12]
Mount Wilson Observatory 1919-12-28,29,30 Four observations in three nights[10]
Yerkes Observatory 1921-01-29 [10]
Mount Wilson Observatory 1925-12-23 Two observations that night[10]
Yerkes Observatory 1927-01-06 [10]
Uccle Observatory 1927-01-27 [10]

References

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  1. ^ René Bourtembourg (2013). "Was Uranus Observed by Hipparchos?". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 44: 377–387. Bibcode:2013JHA....44..377B. doi:10.1177/002182861304400401.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Alexander, Arthur Francis O'Donel (1965). The Planet Uranus - A History of Observation, Theory and Discovery.
  3. ^ Charles T. Kowal; Stillman Drake (25 September 1980). "Galileo's observations of Neptune". Nature. 287 (5780): 311–313. Bibcode:1980Natur.287..311K. doi:10.1038/287311a0.
  4. ^ Albers, Steven (March 1979). "Mutual Occultation of Planets". Sky and Telescope. 57 (3): 220. Bibcode:1979S&T....57..220A.
  5. ^ Fred William Price (2000). The planet observer's handbook. Cambridge University Press. p. 352. ISBN 978-0-521-78981-3. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
  6. ^ Günther Buttmann. The shadow of the telescope: a biography of John Herschel. James Clarke & Co. p. 162.
  7. ^ Galle, J.G. (13 November 1846). "Account of the discovery of the planet of Le Verrier at Berlin". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 7 (9): 153. Bibcode:1846MNRAS...7..153G. doi:10.1093/mnras/7.9.153.
  8. ^ "This month Pluto's apparent magnitude is m=14.1. Could we see it with an 11" reflector of focal length 3400 mm?". Singapore Science Centre. 2002. Archived from the original on November 11, 2005. Retrieved November 29, 2011.
  9. ^ a b Buchwald, Greg; Dimario, Michael; Wild, Walter (2000). "Pluto is Discovered Back in Time" (PDF). Amateur—Professional Partnerships in Astronomy. 220. San Francisco: San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific: 335. Bibcode:2000ASPC..220..355B. ISBN 1-58381-052-8.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Standish, E. M. "Pluto and Planets X". Completing the Inventory of the Solar System, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Proceedings. 107: 163–170. Bibcode:1996ASPC..107..163S.
  11. ^ a b Hoyt, William G. (1976). "W. H. Pickering's Planetary Predictions and the Discovery of Pluto". Isis. 67 (4): 551–564. doi:10.1086/351668. JSTOR 230561.
  12. ^ a b Littman, Mark (1990). Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System. Wiley. p. 70. ISBN 0-471-51053-X.



The Supreme Court of the United States has original jurisdiction for cases that are enumerated in Section 2 of Article Three of the United States Constitution. This section specifies that the Supreme Court may exercise original jurisdiction in cases affecting ambassadors and other diplomats, and in cases in which a state is a party (in all other cases the Court has only appellate jurisdiction). Original jurisdiction cases heard by the Court are uncommon and most of these are in equity; the cases in common law are the only ones that could necessitate a jury trial. There are only three known cases for which the Court conducted a jury trial. All occurred in the 18th century, with only one of them being officially reported.

The table below enumerates the known jury cases plus other some cases that had juries considered by the Court but never actually used.

Case Jury Notes
Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) No In Aug. 1794 a jury was called to determine damages but was dismissed when the Court found that no issues needed determination.[1]
Georgia v. Brailsford (1794) Yes Only officially reported jury case.
Oswald v. New York (1795) Yes This is the only case in which a private citizen won damages against a state.[2]: 57  The jury found $5,315 in damages and $.06 for costs.[2]: 66 
Cutting v. South Carolina (1797) Yes The jury found $55,002.84 in damages.[2]: 459 
Casey v. Galli (1876) No Both parties waived the right to a jury.[3]
United States v. Louisiana (1950) No Because the case was in equity and not in common law, Louisiana's demand for a jury was rejected.[4]

A jury was considered in 1798, but discharged on Feb. 10.[5] It is not known with certainty if there were any other unreported jury cases. During the early years of the Court the case reports were created by private citizens, and not all Court cases were reported in these volumes.

It is unclear if the Court will ever again consent to conducting a jury trial. Congress has given lower federal courts permission to hear Seventh Amendment original jurisdiction cases for all but state v. state cases[6]. The Court has never addressed whether the Seventh Amendment would require a jury in a case at law between states. Even though this amendment guarantees a jury trial for common law cases, in some opinions Justices have questioned or implied that the amendment does not apply to the Court's original jurisdiction cases. For example, in United States v. Louisiana (1950) Justice Douglas, writing the majority opinion, wrote "The Seventh Amendment and the statute, assuming they extend to cases under our original jurisdiction, are applicable only to actions at law".[4] And while the Court has declined original jurisdiction cases, these have all been equity cases; it's ruling in Quackenbush v. Allstate Ins. Co. (1996) implies that a federal court can not decline to hear at law cases.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Shelfer, Lochlan (2013). "Special Juries of the United States". Yale Law Journal. 123 (1).
  2. ^ a b c Maeva, Marcus; Perry, James, eds. (1998). The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1800, Volume 5, Suits Against States. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08867-1.
  3. ^ 94 U.S. 673
  4. ^ a b 339 U.S. 699
  5. ^ Maeva, Marcus; Perry, James, eds. (1998). The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1800, Volume 1, Appointments and Proceedings. Columbia University Press. p. 303. ISBN 0-231-08872-8.
  6. ^ Wexler, Jay (2011). The Odd Clauses, Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of its Most Curious Provisions. Beacon Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8070-0090-8.
  7. ^ 517 U.S. 706