Neptune and 1 Ceres will share the same right ascension, with Neptune passing 8°37' to the north of 1 Ceres.
From Cambridge , the pair will become visible at around 17:43 (EDT), 26° above your south-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 20:50.
Neptune will be at mag 7.9, and 1 Ceres at mag 9.2, both in the constellation Aquarius.
A graph of the angular separation between Neptune and 1 Ceres 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 |
| Neptune | 23h18m50s | 5°35'S | Aquarius | 7.9 | 2"2 |
| 1 Ceres | 23h18m50s | 14°12'S | Aquarius | 9.2 | 0"0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 58° from the Sun, which is in Sagittarius at this time of year.
The sky on 10 Jan 2021
| The sky on 10 January 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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5% 27 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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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
| 28 Aug 2020 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 27 Nov 2021 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 21 Mar 2023 | – 1 Ceres at opposition |
| 06 Jul 2024 | – 1 Ceres 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.