SkyEye

The chart shows the path of Neptune across the background stars over the course of the year. Stars to magnitude +10.5 are shown. The white circles represent the planet on the first day of the month and are scaled according to apparent magnitude. The faint paths before the first circle and after the last circle represent the planet's positions in December of last year and January of next. In general, the planet moves from right to left except when it's in retrograde and proceding in the opposite direction.

The lower chart shows how the appearance of Neptune changes over the year. Below each image is listed the date, the apparent magnitude, the apparent diameter of the disk (in arc-seconds) and the geocentric distance (in au). Because the relative distance of Neptune does not greatly vary throughout the year, neither does its appearance through a telescope.

Neptune is the most distant planet in the solar system from the Sun and the smallest of the four gas giants. Because of its great distance, it is not visible to the naked eye so a small telescope is always necessary to observe it. The blue ice giant entered Pisces at the end of last year; it remains in this constellation until 2029 when it briefly dips into Cetus. Neptune is an evening sky object at the beginning of the year, but it sets a little earlier every night and vanishes in the twilight by March, reaching conjunction on the 17 March. It soon returns to the morning sky, preceding the Sun above the horizon. It rises before midnight from mid-June, reaching opposition on 20 September. This distant world is occulted by the Moon every month this year.

All times and dates are in UT. Positions are geocentric apparent places, referred to the true equator and equinox of date.