Conjunction between the Moon and Saturn
2015 Sep 19
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Saturn will make a close approach, passing within 2°45' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be difficult to observe as they will appear no higher than 13° above the horizon. They will become visible at around 19:26 (GMT) as the dusk sky fades, 13° above your south-western horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 21 minutes after the Sun at 21:25.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -11.2, and Saturn at mag 1.1, 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 | 15h54m00s | -15°38' | Libra | -11.2 | 30'01"7 |
| Saturn | 15h52m10s | -18°22' | Libra | 1.1 | 15"9 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 64° from the Sun, which is in Virgo at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
.