Wed 6th of May 2026 UTC
Astronomy.co.uk Moon Phase Widget
Age: 19 days old
Phase: Waning Gibbous
Illumination: 81%
Distance: 403,942 km
from the NASA archive - 6th May 2026

What does it mean for Saturn and Neptune to be in retrograde?

Featured is a composite of images taken over 34 nights from May 2025 to February 2026 tracing Saturn (brighter, foreground) and Neptune (dimmer, background). Over that time, the two planets exhibited retrograde motion, meaning they appeared to move backward in the sky. This apparent backwards motion occurs when Earth overtakes the slower outer planets as they orbit the Sun. Imagine the Solar System is a running track. Earth "runs" faster along the inside of the track compared to the outer planets. As Earth approaches, aligns, and then "laps" the outer planets, they change position from ahead to behind from the Earth's perspective. This perspective shift is what causes the outer planets to change position in the night sky. An animation corresponding to today’s image shows Saturn and Neptune’s months-long dance across the northern night sky. Saturn stepped from the Pisces constellation into Aquarius and back again while Neptune remained in Pisces. This is the closest Saturn and Neptune have been in the sky since their last conjunction in 1989.

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Astronomy.co.uk
19th November 2025 at 15:31
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Astronomy.co.uk
1st May 2025 at 09:19
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18th December 2024 at 10:01
https://www.astronomy.co.uk/the-sky-tonight/
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8th February 2022 at 00:25
The Pinwheel Galaxy -NASA
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Astronomy.co.uk
17th January 2022 at 16:33
The first Full Moon of 2022, known as the Wolf Moon, will occur tonight! Throughout cold January nights, the howling of wolves could be heard around villages in both Europe and America, so the January Full Moon became widely known as the Wolf Moon. The exact time of the Full Wolf Moon is January 17, 2022, 23:48 GMT
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Astronomy.co.uk
16th January 2022 at 14:07
The Lagoon Nebula - Hubble
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Astronomy.co.uk
5th January 2022 at 10:54
This is a small section of the Cygnus supernova blast wave which appears as a delicate streak of light. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Blair; acknowledgment: Leo Shatz
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Astronomy.co.uk
4th January 2022 at 10:01
An exploding star ! Hubble
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Astronomy.co.uk
3rd January 2022 at 12:12
The station crew sees 16 sunrises a day, and they officially started 2022 at 12am GMT.
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Astronomy.co.uk
2nd January 2022 at 09:07
The Snow Angel Nebula - Hubble
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Astronomy.co.uk
1st January 2022 at 09:04
Crescent Earth The Earth as seen from the Moon on the Command Module of Apollo17 on December 16, 1972. Credit: @NASA (image #AS17-152-23274); Processing: @JPMajor
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Astronomy.co.uk
31st December 2021 at 11:25
Dolphin head nebula located near the center of the constellation Canis Major
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Astronomy.co.uk
30th December 2021 at 13:57
DEM L249, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is an unusual supernova remnant. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Y. Chou (Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
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Astronomy.co.uk
29th December 2021 at 13:58
The Prawn Nebula is a massive stellar nursery located in the constellation Scorpius, about 6,000 light years from Earth Hubble
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