Conjunction between the Moon and Saturn
2017 Aug 3
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Saturn will make a close approach, passing within 3°26' 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 be visible in the evening sky. They will become visible at around 21:08 (BST) as the dusk sky fades, 16° above your southern horizon. They will then reach its highest point in the sky at 21:32, 16° above your southern horizon. They will continue to be observable until around 00:23, when they sink to 8° above your south-western horizon.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -12.3, and Saturn at mag 0.9, 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 Saturn at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 17h24m00s | -18°29' | Ophiuchus | -12.3 | 29'30"0 |
| Saturn | 17h22m30s | -21°54' | Ophiuchus | 0.9 | 17"7 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 130° 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
.