Conjunction between the Moon and Mars
2016 Dec 5
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Mars will make a close approach, passing within 2°52' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be visible in the evening sky. They will become visible at around 16:16 (GMT) as the dusk sky fades, 22° above your southern horizon. They will then reach its highest point in the sky at 16:29, 22° above your southern horizon. They will continue to be observable until around 20:01, when they sink to 8° above your south-western horizon.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -11.3 in the constellation Aquarius, and Mars at mag 0.2 in the neighbouring constellation of Capricornus.
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 Mars at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 21h25m30s | -13°32' | Aquarius | -11.3 | 30'42"0 |
| Mars | 21h28m10s | -16°20' | Capricornus | 0.2 | 6"3 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 66° from the Sun, which is in Ophiuchus at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
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