November 13, 2025: With the moon returning to its waning crescent phase, look for Uranus and Neptune. Neptune appears in the same binocular field with Saturn, while Uranus is in front of Taurus near the Pleiades.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:38 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:31 p.m. CST. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
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With the moon returning to its waning crescent phase, attempt to look for the planets Uranus and Neptune.
Saturn and Neptune
Neptune is in the same binocular field with Saturn, although the modern solar system model’s most distant planet is very dim.
Initially, locate Saturn. As night falls, the Ringed Wonder is about 30° above the southeast horizon—about one-third of the way from the horizon to overhead. It is dimmer than Venus and Jupiter but brighter than most stars in the sky at this hour.
Saturn is dimmer than average because we see the rings nearly from the edge, a view that occurs about every 15 years. The icy particles reflect light away from Earth. Through a telescope, the rings appear as a thin line that seems to cut through the planet.
Attempt to find Neptune about 4–5 hours after sundown when it is in the south and visibility is best. Initially, place Saturn at the center of the field of view, then tilt the binocular slightly so the Ringed Wonder is near the lower right edge. Find the stars 20, 24, 27, and 29 Piscium (Psc) near the field’s center. Appearing as a faint bluish star, Neptune is slightly off-center toward the upper left.
Saturn is about 40 times brighter than the stars marked on the chart above, and those stars are nearly 15 times brighter than Neptune. The faint planet is to the upper right of a similarly dim white star. Sometimes it can be seen more easily with averted (peripheral) vision than by looking directly at it. Focus on the dark sky near, but not directly at, Neptune.
Uranus near Pleiades
In comparison, Uranus is visible from rural locations without optical assistance. Before the telescope’s invention, it was mapped as a star. The planet is in front of Taurus near the Pleiades star cluster.
Uranus is near opposition, meaning it rises at about sunset. Look for it from about three hours after sunset until the beginning of morning twilight.
At four hours after sunset, Taurus’ bright reddish star Aldebaran is about one-third of the way from the eastern horizon to overhead. Appearing as a miniature dipper, the Pleiades are nearly 15° above the star, and Uranus is about 4° to their lower right.
Through the binocular, place the star cluster near the upper left in the field of view. Uranus is about the same brightness as 13, 14, 32, and 37 Tauri (Tau). Appearing as an aquamarine star, the planet is 1.3° to 14 Tauri’s lower left.
During the next several nights, and until the moon returns to about the First Quarter phase, look for Uranus and Neptune.
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