Conjunction between the Moon and M44
2018 Mar 26
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and M44 will make a close approach, passing within 2°07′ of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be visible in the evening sky. They will become visible at around 19:41 (BST) as the dusk sky fades, 52° above your south-eastern horizon. They will then reach its highest point in the sky at 21:19, 58° above your southern horizon. They will continue to be observable until around 04:14, when they sink to 7° above your western horizon.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -12.4, and M44 at mag 3.1, both in the constellation Cancer.
The pair will be too widely separated to fit within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible to the naked eye or through a pair of binoculars.
The precise positions of the Moon and M44 at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 08h38m30s | +17°53′ | Cancer | -12.4 | 32’21″2 |
| M44 | 08h40m00s | +19°58′ | Cancer | 3.1 | 1’35″0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 121° from the Sun, which is in Pisces at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
.