The Moon and Neptune will make a close approach, passing within a mere 1.2 arcminutes of each other. From some parts of the world, the Moon will pass in front of Neptune, creating a lunar occultation. The Moon will be 8 days old.
From Cambridge , the pair will be visible in the evening sky, becoming accessible around 17:42 (EDT), 56° above your southern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then reach their highest point in the sky at 18:24, 58° above your southern horizon. They will continue to be observable until around 23:04, when they sink below 21° above your western horizon.
The Moon will be at mag -12.1; and Neptune will be at mag 7.9. Both objects will lie in the constellation Aries.
They 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 the Moon and Neptune around the time of closest approach is available here.
The positions of the pair at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 02h03m30s | 10°41'N | Aries | -12.1 | 31'04"1 |
| Neptune | 02h03m30s | 10°40'N | Aries | 7.9 | 2"3 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 102° from the Sun, which is in Sagittarius at this time of year.
The sky on 21 May 2024
| The sky on 21 May 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
96% 13 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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
| 27 Oct 2040 | – Neptune at opposition |
| 12 Jan 2041 | – Neptune ends retrograde motion |
| 10 Aug 2041 | – Neptune enters retrograde motion |
| 29 Oct 2041 | – Neptune 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.