The planets Saturn and Neptune will make a close approach, passing within a mere 18.3 arcminutes of each other.
From Cambridge , the pair will be visible between 23:53 and 03:02. They will become accessible at around 23:53, when they rise to an altitude of 21° above your south-eastern horizon. They will reach their highest point in the sky at 01:28, 25° above your southern horizon. They will become inaccessible at around 03:02 when they sink below 21° above your south-western horizon.
Saturn will be at mag 0.0; 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.
At around the same time, the pair will also share the same right ascension – called a conjunction.
A graph of the angular separation between Saturn 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 |
| Saturn | 18h49m10s | 22°19'S | Sagittarius | 0.0 | 18"3 |
| Neptune | 18h49m10s | 22°01'S | Sagittarius | 7.9 | 2"3 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 171° from the Sun, which is in Gemini at this time of year.
The sky on 9 Oct 2024
| The sky on 9 October 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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47% 7 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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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
| 13 Apr 1989 | – Neptune enters retrograde motion |
| 02 Jul 1989 | – Neptune at opposition |
| 21 Sep 1989 | – Neptune ends retrograde motion |
| 16 Apr 1990 | – 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.