Conjunction between the Moon and Mars
2018 Mar 10
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Mars will make a close approach, passing within 3°47′ of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be difficult to observe as they will appear no higher than 15° above the horizon. They will be visible in the dawn sky. They will rise at 02:34 (BST), 3 hours and 52 minutes before the Sun, and attain an altitude of 15° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 06:04.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -11.7, and Mars at mag 0.2, both in the constellation Ophiuchus.
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 | 17h41m10s | -19°26′ | Ophiuchus | -11.7 | 29’35″6 |
| Mars | 17h39m40s | -23°13′ | Ophiuchus | 0.2 | 7″1 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 83° 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
.