Where is Neptune tonight?

Neptune in 3D

Neptune lit by the Sun at this moment and seen from Earth’s direction, so its phase matches what a telescope shows. Drag to turn it. The time slider moves the light and the rotation.

Where to find Neptune among the stars

Two finder charts for today: a wide field to find the right part of the sky and a closer field with fainter stars. North is up and east on the left, as the sky looks to the naked eye. The dotted line marks its path over the coming weeks, one dot per week.

Stars: HYG Database. Constellation figures: Stellarium. Deep-sky objects: OpenNGC (Messier objects marked M).

Visibility over the next 12 months

Angle between Neptune and the Sun on the 15th of each month. The further from the Sun, the darker the sky around it. Colour shows whether it is in the evening or the morning sky.

Ephemeris for the next 15 days

Position at 0:00 UTC each day as seen from the centre of the Earth (apparent coordinates of date), calculated with Astronomy Engine.

Distance from Earth

Distance from Earth over the past and the coming year. The closest approach in this period: September 27, 2027, 4,319 million km.

Brightness

Visual magnitude over the same two years. Higher on the chart is brighter.

Coming up

• Sep 28, 2027Neptune at opposition
• Sep 29, 2028Neptune at opposition

Facts

Moon count: NASA, page updated September 21, 2026

Source: NASA planetary fact sheet (Oct 12, 2026). Calculated with Astronomy Engine, an open-source library verified against the US Naval Observatory and NASA JPL. Data sources

Gravity compared: Neptune and Earth

Drop, jump and throw side by side: Neptune on one side, Earth or any other world on the other. Pick a world to compare, or open the full tool. Open the gravity tool

Latest NASA images of Neptune

The newest images about it in NASA’s Photojournal, updated daily. Open one for NASA’s full caption and the original file.

NASA news about Neptune

• Jun 11, 2024Ed Stone, Former Director of JPL, Voyager Project Scientist, Dies
• Aug 11, 2023All Eyes on the Ice Giants
• Sep 29, 2022Neptune Shows Off Its Rings in Near-Infrared Light

Headlines from NASA’s news feeds (in English), updated daily. Last checked October 13, 2026.

Discoveries and exploration

Key moments in the study of Neptune, each linked to its source.

1. 1612Galileo records Neptune as a fixed star during observations with his small telescope. Source
2. 1846Johann Galle finds Neptune at the Berlin Observatory from Urbain Le Verrier's predicted position. Source
3. October 10, 1846William Lassell discovers Triton, Neptune's largest moon, 17 days after the planet's discovery. Source
4. 1949Gerard Kuiper discovers Neptune's moon Nereid. Source
5. 1984Astronomers find evidence for a ring system around Neptune. Source
6. August 25, 1989Voyager 2 makes its flyby of Neptune. Source
7. 2002Astronomers discover four new moons: Laomedeia, Neso, Sao and Halimede. Source
8. 2005Keck Observatory images show that some of Neptune's ring arcs have deteriorated. Source · Recent NASA photos
9. 2011Neptune completes its first 165-year orbit of the Sun since its discovery in 1846. Source
10. 2013A scientist finds a 14th moon, S/2004 N 1, in archival Hubble images of Neptune's ring arcs. Source · Recent NASA photos
11. 2016Hubble discovers a new dark spot, the first new atmospheric vortex on Neptune seen this century. Source
12. 2022NASA's Webb telescope takes its first image of Neptune, the clearest view of its rings in over 30 years. Source · Recent NASA photos

Checked against the linked NASA, ESA and NOAA pages on October 10, 2026.

How to use this page

Choose your place and a night at the top: tonight by default, or one of the dates under it. The tiles show when Neptune rises, is highest and sets, and the numbers that matter for that night. Below them you find where it is right now, the sky in 3D with Neptune marked, finder charts, the year ahead and the facts.

What the numbers mean

Rises and sets

When the top edge of the disc meets a flat horizon, with the bending of light by the air included, as in almanacs. A time on another day carries its date.

Highest

When it crosses the meridian, due south or due north, and its height above the horizon then.

Direction and height

The compass point and azimuth to face, counted from north through east, and the angle above the horizon. A fist at arm’s length covers about 10°.

Distance and apparent size

How far away it is from Earth’s centre at that moment and how wide it looks in the sky, in arcminutes (′) or arcseconds (″).

Magnitude

Brightness: the smaller the number, the brighter. About 6 is the faintest the eye sees under a dark sky.

How accurate it is

Positions and times come from Astronomy Engine. In our tests positions agree with NASA JPL’s Horizons to within one arcminute, and rise and set times of the Sun and the Moon to within two minutes. Times assume a flat horizon at your place, so hills and buildings change when you actually see it rise or set. Methodology

Frequently asked questions