Conjunction between the Moon and Mars
2017 Mar 1
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Mars will make a close approach, passing within 4°07' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will become visible at around 18:02 (BST) as the dusk sky fades, 32° above your south-western horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 4 hours and 2 minutes after the Sun at 21:41.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -10.6, and Mars at mag 1.0, 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 | 01h33m20s | +05°22' | Pisces | -10.6 | 32'17"6 |
| Mars | 01h28m20s | +09°17' | Pisces | 1.0 | 4"5 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 42° from the Sun, which is in Aquarius at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
.