1 Ceres and 134340 Pluto will share the same right ascension, with 1 Ceres passing 3°42' to the south of 134340 Pluto.
From South El Monte , the pair will become visible at around 21:20 (PDT), 49° above your western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 01:27.
1 Ceres will be at mag 8.6, and 134340 Pluto at mag 14.7, both in the constellation Leo.
The pair will be too widely separated to fit within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible through a pair of binoculars.
A graph of the angular separation between 1 Ceres and 134340 Pluto 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 |
| 1 Ceres | 11h09m40s | 16°25'N | Leo | 8.6 | 0"0 |
| 134340 Pluto | 11h09m40s | 20°07'N | Leo | 14.7 | 0"0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 77° from the Sun, which is in Taurus at this time of year.
The sky on 18 May 2026
| The sky on 18 May 2026 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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9% 2 days old |
All times shown in PDT.
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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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| 02 Mar 1963 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
| 03 Mar 1964 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
| 05 Mar 1965 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
| 08 Mar 1966 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
Image credit
The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.