Conjunction between the Moon and Venus
2018 Jul 16
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Venus will make a close approach, passing within 1°33' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be difficult to observe as they will appear no higher than 11° above the horizon. They will become visible at around 21:35 (BST) as the dusk sky fades, 11° above your western horizon. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 47 minutes after the Sun at 22:53.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -10.6, and Venus at mag -4.7, both in the constellation Leo.
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 | 10h36m30s | +11°41' | Leo | -10.6 | 32'45"4 |
| Venus | 10h34m40s | +10°11' | Leo | -4.7 | 17"6 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 43° from the Sun, which is in Gemini at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
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