Conjunction between the Moon and Venus
2015 Oct 8
Dominic Ford – originally published on In-The-Sky.org
The Moon and Venus will make a close approach, passing within 0°39' of each other.
From London (click to change), the pair will be visible in the dawn sky. They will rise at 03:08 (GMT), 4 hours and 6 minutes before the Sun, and attain an altitude of 32° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 06:52.
At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -10.5, and Venus at mag -5.3, both in the constellation Leo.
The pair will be a little too widely separated to fit comfortably within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible to the naked eye or a through 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 | 10h04m10s | +08°57' | Leo | -10.5 | 29'35"8 |
| Venus | 10h04m50s | +09°35' | Leo | -5.3 | 29"6 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 45° from the Sun, which is in Virgo at this time of year.
The details of this observing event were provided courtesy of In-The-Sky.org
.