Conjunction between the Moon and Saturn
2015 Aug 22
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Saturn will make a close approach, passing within 2°30' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be difficult to observe as they will appear no higher than 16° above the horizon. They will become visible at around 20:32 (GMT) as the dusk sky fades, 16° above your south-western horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 3 hours and 4 minutes after the Sun at 23:12.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -11.8, and Saturn at mag 1.0, both in the constellation Libra.
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 Saturn at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 15h48m10s | -15°29' | Libra | -11.8 | 30'16"0 |
| Saturn | 15h46m20s | -17°57' | Libra | 1.0 | 16"6 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 89° from the Sun, which is in Leo at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
.