Neptune’s winds travel at more than 1,500 mph, and are the fastest planetary winds in the solar system.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL
Neptune is much too faint to be seen with the unaided eye, but right now you can see the blue planet shine just by using binoculars.
Neptune lies an average distance of 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion km) from the sun. With the demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet status, Neptune is now the farthest of the “classical” planets in the solar system. It is slightly smaller than Uranus, with a diameter of 30,775 miles (49,528 km).
Currently at magnitude +7.8, it’s more than six times dimmer than Uranus. Nonetheless, if you have access to a dark, clear sky and carefully examine a good star map, y ou should have no trouble in finding it with binoculars. Neptune can be found among the stars of Aquarius which is about one-third of the way up from the southeast horizon to the point directly overhead (called the zenith) as darkness falls. With a telescope, trying to resolve Neptune into a disk will be more difficult than it is with Uranus. You’re going to need at least a 4 inch (10 centimeters) telescope with a magnification of no less than 200-power, just to turn Neptune into a tiny blue dot of light.
