Saturn and Neptune are still in the morning sky but by now they are rising around midnight and are near the meridian by morning twilight. Saturn has moved back into Pisces after its brief excursion through a corner of Cetus, while Neptune remains in the peninsula of Pisces that extends south between Aquarius and Cetus. Saturn is magnitude +0.60 and Neptune magnitude +7.85 this morning, with 10° 25' 33" separating them. Unannotated image, Back to July 2026, Back to Starvergnügen.
Neptune reached the stationary point in its orbit on July 6/7, when of course it started retrograde motion. At that point, it almost reached a small grouping of five stars, with two of them being of nearly equivalent brightness to Neptune, but now, it is moving back to the west below the ecliptic.
Saturn, being farther east, has still not reached its stationary point, but will do so in four days on July 26. After that, Saturn will begin retro- grade motion towards its opposition on October 4, which will occur in the constellation Cetus.
The rings of Saturn have opened up somewhat, and are now tilted at 9°, showing their southern side to Earth-bound observers. The wider ring presen- tation will result in Saturn appearing marginally brighter this apparition than it has in the last several years.
The last time Saturn was in this part of the sky was in 1997, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it that season. The best I have for its position one Saturnian orbit prior to now is a photo from November 9, 1996, where we see that its position was close to where Neptune is now.