Neptune
Planet
Dream, dissolution, compassion and illusion.
In the sky right now
Aries 2°22′
Ecliptic longitude 2.38°
Currently retrograde
Daily motion -0.025° per day
Retrograde cycle
- StatusRetrograde
- Stationed retrogradeJul 7, 2026
- Goes directDec 12, 2026
- Neptune retrogrades once a year for roughly five months.
Astronomy
- Discovered
- 23 September 1846, by Johann Galle, from predictions by Urbain Le Verrier
- Average distance from the Sun
- 4.5 billion km (30.1 AU)
- Orbital period
- 164.8 Earth years — one orbit since discovery, completed in 2011
- Rotation period
- 16 hours 6 minutes
- Diameter
- 49,244 km
- Winds
- Up to 2,100 km/h — the fastest in the solar system
- Moons
- 16 known, the largest being Triton, which orbits backwards
- Notable
- The first planet found by mathematics rather than observation
Planetary facts follow NASA and JPL reference data. Moon counts reflect IAU-recognised satellites as of August 2026. Zodiacal positions and retrograde stations are calculated live using the app's VSOP87/NOVAS-derived astronomy engine rather than being hard-coded. The lunar nodes shown are True (osculating) nodes, computed from the Moon's instantaneous orbital plane — the same convention Astro.com uses by default.
Greek & Roman mythology
Greek
Poseidon
Roman
Neptunus
Poseidon took the sea when the three brothers divided the cosmos, and was also 'Earth-shaker', god of earthquakes, and closely tied to horses. He was volatile: the Odyssey turns on his long grudge against Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus.
He lost the contest with Athena for patronage of Athens — his gift, a saltwater spring, was judged less useful than her olive tree.
Neptunus was originally a Roman god of fresh water and springs; his festival, the Neptunalia, fell on 23 July in the heat of summer, when water mattered most. Identification with Poseidon and the sea came with Greek influence.
In a natal chart
Neptune governs imagination, spirituality, dreams, empathy, art, escapism and the dissolving of boundaries — including where things get foggy or deceptive.
It spends about fourteen years in each sign, making it a generational marker.
Neptune is the modern ruler of Pisces, which traditionally belonged to Jupiter.
Rules: Pisces (modern)
See where Neptune falls in your chartExplore the rest of the sky
Don't write your paper based on this page. We keep the facts as accurate as we can, but moon counts get revised, missions rewrite the textbooks, and the live positions are computed on the fly — treat this as a reliable starting point, not a real-time oracle.