Conjunction between the Moon and Venus
2017 Jan 31
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Venus will make a close approach, passing within 3°52' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will become visible at around 17:10 (BST) as the dusk sky fades, 32° above your south-western horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 4 hours and 24 minutes after the Sun at 21:10.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -10.7, and Venus at mag -5.4, 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 Venus at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 23h52m10s | -03°09' | Pisces | -10.7 | 31'37"5 |
| Venus | 23h47m30s | +00°32' | Pisces | -5.4 | 30"7 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 45° 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
.