Astronomer's J. Elliot, E. Dunham and D. Mink at Cornell University reported the initial discovery of the ring system of Uranus in the journal Nature vol. 277, page 97 in 1979.  By monitoring the brightness of the star, SAO 158687 on March 10, 1977 as it was eclipsed by Uranus, they detected 5 'dips' in brightness.  Using an infrared telescope on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, they identified the five rings, named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon.