September 10, 2026: With the moon at the New phase, dark skies help sky watchers locate Uranus near the Pleiades, search for Neptune near Saturn, and understand where Pluto appears in front of Capricornus’ stars.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 6:26 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 7:09 p.m. CDT. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
Venus as an Evening Star
Far Outer Planets
With the moon at the New moon phase at 10:27 p.m. Central Time, the sky is dark enough, except for local lighting conditions, to locate the far outer planets.
Uranus
Uranus is the easiest to locate. Look for it near the Pleiades star cluster before the beginning of morning twilight that begins about 90 minutes before daybreak.
At this time, the stellar bundle is high in the south-southeast. Uranus is between the star cluster and Aldebaran, Taurus’ brightest star. The planet is visible without optical assistance from a rural location away from outdoor lights.
From suburban settings, use a binocular. Examine the star cluster’s blue-white stars. Then adjust the binocular so the star cluster appears toward the upper right edge of the field. The stars 37 and 39 Tauri (37 Tau and 39 Tau) are near the center of the field. Uranus is outside the field of view to the lower left.
Uranus begins to retrograde tonight. As it appears to move westward against the starfield, it moves back into the binocular’s field of view during the next few weeks.
This morning, shift the binocular again so that stars 37 Tau and 39 Tau are toward the upper right. Uranus is near the center, nearly two-thirds of the way from star 39 Tauri to Omega Tauri (ω Tau). Star 37 Tauri is about the same brightness as aquamarine Uranus.
Binocular View
The accompanying chart shows two overlapping binocular fields. Do not confuse this with the field presented in a movie, which shows an hourglass shape around the view. A binocular field is a circle because both eyes are looking at the same thing.
Neptune
In comparison, Neptune is a challenging sight because it is considerably fainter than Uranus and it is in front of a non-descript starfield. At four hours before sunrise, it is over halfway from the southern horizon to overhead and about 10° to Saturn’s west (right).
It is in the same binocular field with 10 Ceti (10 Cet) and 44 Piscium (44 Psc). The Distant Planet is likely first seen with averted (peripheral) vision.
Pluto
For completeness, Pluto – the ninth planet in the classical solar system – is in the south-southeast after sunset with Capricornus. The constellation resembles a wedge or boomerang. A large-aperture telescope is needed to locate the planet and observe it over several nights to see it move against the starfield. The planet is only 0.03% of Uranus’ brightness.
Look for Uranus and possibly Neptune through a binocular until the moon brightens.
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