Close approach of Mercury and Mars

Mercury and Mars will make a close approach, passing within 0°13' of each other.

From London however, the pair will not be observable – they will reach their highest point in the sky during daytime and will be no higher than 5° above the horizon at dusk.

Mercury will be at mag 0.1, and Mars at mag 1.8, both in the constellation Gemini.

The pair will be close enough to fit within the field of view of a telescope, but will also be visible to the naked eye or 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 Mercury and Mars 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 24° from the Sun, which is in Taurus at this time of year.

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

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