The Moon and Neptune will make a close approach, passing within a mere 16.0 arcminutes of each other. From some parts of the world, the Moon will pass in front of Neptune, creating a lunar occultation. The Moon will be 18 days old.
From Fairfield , the pair will be visible in the morning sky, becoming accessible around 01:36, when they reach an altitude of 21° above your south-eastern horizon. They will then reach their highest point in the sky at 03:24, 26° above your southern horizon. They will be lost to dawn twilight around 04:22, 25° above your southern horizon.
The Moon will be at mag -12.4; and Neptune will be at mag 7.9. Both objects will lie in the constellation Sagittarius.
They will be close enough to fit within the field of view of a telescope, but will also be visible through a pair of binoculars.
A graph of the angular separation between the Moon and Neptune around the time of closest approach is available here.
The positions of the pair at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 17h46m20s | 21°49'S | Sagittarius | -12.4 | 29'27"2 |
| Neptune | 17h46m10s | 22°05'S | Sagittarius | 7.9 | 2"3 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 143° from the Sun, which is in Aries at this time of year.
The sky on 16 Aug 2024
| The sky on 16 August 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
89% 12 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Related news
| 29 Mar 1982 | – Neptune enters retrograde motion |
| 17 Jun 1982 | – Neptune at opposition |
| 05 Sep 1982 | – Neptune ends retrograde motion |
| 31 Mar 1983 | – Neptune enters retrograde motion |
Image credit
The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.