Conjunction between the Moon and Mars
2017 Feb 1
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Mars will make a close approach, passing within 2°12' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will become visible at around 17:08 (BST) as the dusk sky fades, 34° above your south-western horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 4 hours and 46 minutes after the Sun at 21:30.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -10.9, and Mars at mag 0.7, both in the constellation Pisces.
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 | 00h13m00s | -01°22' | Pisces | -10.9 | 31'42"7 |
| Mars | 00h10m20s | +00°42' | Pisces | 0.7 | 5"0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 50° from the Sun, which is in Capricornus at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
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