Conjunction between the Moon and Uranus
2016 Feb 12
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Uranus will make a close approach, passing within 1°38' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will become visible at around 17:29 (GMT) as the dusk sky fades, 39° above your south-western horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 5 hours and 6 minutes after the Sun at 22:12.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -11.1, and Uranus at mag 5.9, both in the constellation Pisces.
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 Uranus at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 01h06m40s | +04°39' | Pisces | -11.1 | 32'39"4 |
| Uranus | 01h04m40s | +06°14' | Pisces | 5.9 | 3"4 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 54° from the Sun, which is in Capricornus at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
.