Saturn and Neptune will share the same right ascension, with Saturn passing 18' to the south of Neptune.

At around the same time, the two objects will also make a close approach, technically called an appulse.

From Columbus , the pair will be visible between 00:11 and 04:11. They will become accessible at around 00:11, when they rise to an altitude of 21° above your south-eastern horizon. They will reach their highest point in the sky at 02:11, 28° above your southern horizon. They will become inaccessible at around 04:11 when they sink below 21° above your south-western horizon.

Saturn will be at mag 0.0, and Neptune at mag 7.9, both in the constellation Sagittarius.

The pair 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 Saturn and Neptune around the time of closest approach is available here.

The positions of the two objects at the moment of conjunction will be as follows:

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

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.

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Image credit

The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.

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