Conjunction between the Moon and Saturn
2015 Jul 26
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Saturn will make a close approach, passing within 2°11' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be difficult to observe as they will appear no higher than 19° above the horizon. They will become visible at around 21:23 (GMT) as the dusk sky fades, 19° above your southern horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 4 hours and 7 minutes after the Sun at 01:02.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -12.2, and Saturn at mag 0.9, 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 | 15h46m40s | -15°37' | Libra | -12.2 | 30'33"9 |
| Saturn | 15h45m10s | -17°46' | Libra | 0.9 | 17"4 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 115° from the Sun, which is in Cancer at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
.