© NASA/Voyager 2

Neptune at opposition

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Outer Planets feed

Objects: Neptune
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The sky at

Neptune will reach opposition, when it lies opposite to the Sun in the sky. Lying in the constellation Capricornus, it will be visible for much of the night, reaching its highest point in the sky around midnight local time.

From Seattle, it will be visible between 23:39 and 02:56. It will become accessible at around 23:39, when it rises to an altitude of 21° above your south-eastern horizon. It will reach its highest point in the sky at 01:18, 25° above your southern horizon. It will become inaccessible at around 02:56 when it sinks below 21° above your south-western horizon.

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2004 apparition of Neptune

17 May 2004 – Neptune enters retrograde motion
05 Aug 2004 – Neptune at opposition
24 Oct 2004 – Neptune ends retrograde motion

A close approach to the Earth

At around the same time that Neptune passes opposition, it also makes its closest approach to the Earth – termed its perigee – making it appear at its brightest.

This happens because when Neptune lies opposite to the Sun in the sky, the Earth passes between Neptune and the Sun. The solar system is lined up with Neptune and the Earth on the same side of the Sun, as shown by the configuration labelled perigee in the diagram below:


When a planet is at opposition, the solar system is aligned such that the planet lies on the same side of the Sun as the Earth. At this time, the planet makes its perigee, or closest approach to the Earth. Not drawn to scale.

In practice, however, Neptune orbits much further out in the solar system than the Earth – at an average distance from the Sun of 30.07 times that of the Earth, and so its angular size does not vary much as it cycles between opposition and solar conjunction.

Observing Neptune

At opposition, Neptune is visible for much of the night. When it lies opposite to the Sun in the sky, this means that it rises at around the time the Sun sets, and it sets at around the time the Sun rises. It reaches its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time.

But even when it is at its closest point to the Earth, it is not possible to distinguish it as more than a star-like point of light without the aid of a telescope.

A chart of the path of Neptune across the sky in 2004 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.

At the moment of opposition, Neptune will lie at a distance of 29.06 AU, and its disk will measure 2.4 arcsec in diameter, shining at magnitude 7.8. Its celestial coordinates at the moment it passes opposition will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Magnitude Angular Size
Neptune 21h05m40s 16°42'S Capricornus 7.8 2.4"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

Over the weeks following its opposition, Neptune will reach its highest point in the sky four minutes earlier each night, gradually receding from the pre-dawn morning sky while remaining visible in the evening sky for a few months.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:52
Sunset
19:33
Twilight ends
21:20
Twilight begins
05:06

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

85%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:12 14:13 21:14
Venus 06:28 12:10 17:51
Moon 22:29 03:20 08:01
Mars 05:54 11:08 16:22
Jupiter 08:21 15:38 22:55
Saturn 06:15 11:42 17:09
All times shown in PDT.

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

05 Aug 2004  –  Neptune at opposition
24 Oct 2004  –  Neptune ends retrograde motion
19 May 2005  –  Neptune enters retrograde motion
08 Aug 2005  –  Neptune at opposition

Image credit

© NASA/Voyager 2

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