Conjunction between the Moon and Saturn
2018 Mar 11
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Saturn will make a close approach, passing within 2°13′ of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be difficult to observe as they will appear no higher than 14° above the horizon. They will be visible in the dawn sky. They will rise at 03:18 (BST), 3 hours and 5 minutes before the Sun, and attain an altitude of 14° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 06:01.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -11.4, and Saturn at mag 1.1, both in the constellation Sagittarius.
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 | 18h33m30s | -20°06′ | Sagittarius | -11.4 | 29’31″0 |
| Saturn | 18h33m20s | -22°20′ | Sagittarius | 1.1 | 16″1 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 72° 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
.