Mars and Neptune will share the same right ascension, with Mars passing 13' to the south of Neptune.
At around the same time, the two objects will also make a close approach, technically called an appulse.
From Fairfield however, the pair will not be observable – they will reach their highest point in the sky during daytime and will be no higher than 18° above the horizon at dusk.
Mars will be at mag 1.2, and Neptune at mag 8.0, both in the constellation Aquarius.
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 Mars 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:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Mars | 22h31m00s | 10°19'S | Aquarius | 1.2 | 4"5 |
| Neptune | 22h31m00s | 10°05'S | Aquarius | 8.0 | 2"2 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 36° from the Sun, which is in Sagittarius at this time of year.
The sky on 5 May 2024
| The sky on 5 May 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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8% 27 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.
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| 16 Nov 2014 | – Neptune ends retrograde motion |
| 12 Jun 2015 | – Neptune enters retrograde motion |
| 31 Aug 2015 | – Neptune at opposition |
| 18 Nov 2015 | – Neptune ends 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.