Close approach of Mars and Uranus

Mars and Uranus will make a close approach, passing within 0°58′ of each other.

From London, the pair will become visible at around 17:55 (BST) as the dusk sky fades, 44° above your south-western horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 6 hours and 7 minutes after the Sun at 23:13.

Mars will be at mag 1.0, and Uranus at mag 5.8, both in the constellation Aries.

The pair will be a little too widely separated to fit comfortably within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible through a pair of binoculars.

At around the same time, the two objects will also share the same right ascension – called a conjunction.

A graph of the angular separation between Mars and Uranus around the time of closest approach is available here.

The positions of the two objects at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 64° from the Sun, which is in Capricornus at this time of year.

This entry in the observing calendar was provided by In-The-Sky.org

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