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Ashraf Tadros, professor of astronomy at the National Institute of Astronomical and Geophysical Research, said that at about twelve and 12 minutes on Saturday morning, the blue planet “Neptune” will be in the opposite position with the sun relative to the Earth, where its entire face is illuminated by the sun and will be visible throughout the night and brighter than Any other time of the year.
Tadros stressed that this is the best time to watch and photograph Neptune, explaining that due to Neptune’s extreme distance from Earth, the planet will appear as a small blue dot in all small and medium telescopes.
For his part, the President of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, Eng. Majed Abu Zahira, said that the planet Neptune will be in the opposite state, as it will be at an angle of 180 degrees relative to the sun in the Earth’s sky at (10:12 pm GMT), and it will also be at the closest point to the planet Earth.
He added that the arrival of Neptune to the closest point to our planet is according to astronomical standards, but it does not actually mean that it is “close”, as it is the eighth planet; In terms of distance from the Sun, and in this conjunction, Neptune will be 4,324,879,560 km from Earth.
He explained that the phenomenon of meeting Neptune occurs every time the Earth crosses between the sun and Neptune, and in contrast, the blue planet and its face are completely lit by the sun, compared to any other time during the year, and it is monitored in the dome of the sky throughout the night, which is the best time to see and photograph the planet Neptune as it rises with sunset. The sun reaches the highest point in the sky at midnight and sets with the sunrise of the next day.
He stated that the planet Neptune was newly discovered, so the first observation of it was on September 23, 1846, which is the fourth largest planet in our solar system and the first planet to be discovered through calculations, and the largest of its moons called (Triton) was discovered 17 days after the discovery of the same planet, and it is the only large moon that rotates in the direction of It is opposite to the rotation of Neptune on its axis. For comparison, it takes sunlight to reach Neptune 4 hours, while it reaches Earth in only 8 minutes.
He continued, “Neptune completes one revolution around the sun in 165 years, but it takes less than 16 hours to complete one revolution around its axis. It was named after (the symbol of the seas) according to Roman mythology, and the reason for its blue color is due to the abundance and abundance of methane in its atmosphere.”
Source: Masrawy