Don’t bother taking a telescope to see the conjunction, as the objects won’t fit together in its field of view. Venus will shine brilliantly with a magnitude of -4.1, visible to the naked eye, and Uranus, with a magnitude of 5.8, will require binoculars to observe. The planets will meet in the constellation Aries. On March 30, at 21:09 GMT, Venus and Uranus will pass within 1☁3' from each other. Both planets will be visible to the naked eye just before dawn. Jupiter will be located in the constellation Pisces, while Mercury will be in Aries. On May 17, at 12:51 GMT, Jupiter (magnitude -2.0) and Mercury (magnitude 1.6) will come within 6° of each other. Past events May 17: Mercury-Jupiter conjunction Look for them in the evening, about an hour after sunset. Both planets will be located in the constellation Leo, relatively high in the sky. The planets will be located too far away from each other to fit within a telescope’s field of view but will be visible to the naked eye. EDT), Mercury (mag 0.4) will pass within 4☄2' from Mars (1.8). Screenshot made via the Star Walk 2 app.Ĭonjunctions in August August 13: Mercury-Mars conjunction They won't be visible together in the field of view of a telescope but can be seen with binoculars or naked eyes. Bright Venus will be visible with the naked eye even from light-polluted locations, while fainter Mars will require slightly better observing conditions. Both objects will be in the constellation Leo. EDT), Venus (magnitude -4.7) and Mars (magnitude 1.7) will pass within 3☃6' of each other. The app's image matches the real sky.Ĭonjunctions in July July 1: Venus-Mars conjunction A white arrow will appear on your screen, so you can follow it until you spot the planet. ![]() Tap the blue compass button to find the planet's actual position in the sky above you.Tap the blue target button next to the relevant result, and the app will show you the planet's location on the sky map.Launch the app and type the name of the planet you're looking for in the search bar.You can easily locate planets in the sky above you with the help of Sky Tonight. Some people confuse a planetary conjunction and a planetary alignment, sometimes referred to as a “planet parade.” A conjunction implies a shorter than usual distance between objects in the sky, while an alignment means that planets line up in a row in the same area of the sky, as seen from the Earth. In our article, we list the upcoming conjunctions of the Moon and planets, so you can learn which planet is close to the Moon tonight. Such an event is called the Great Conjunction and provides a spectacular show for stargazers.Ī conjunction can include other celestial objects besides planets - for example, moons, asteroids, or stars. Sometimes planets come even closer - last time it happened with Jupiter and Saturn in 2020 when they appeared less than 0.1° apart. To get it better, imagine that 0.5° is the average width of a Full Moon disk. Usually, the distance between objects during a conjunction varies from 0.5° to 9°. But don’t confuse these events! A close approach isn’t necessarily a conjunction. In fact, it describes a close approach (small angular separation) of space objects - an event that usually takes place near a conjunction. While the first definition is more common, it isn’t very precise. Ecliptic longitude is measured along the ecliptic eastwards from the Sun’s position at the March equinox. ² Ecliptic is an imaginary line that marks the Sun’s apparent path across the sky during a year. ¹Right ascension is the equivalent of longitude on the Earth’s surface projected onto the celestial sphere. Such proximity of planets is an optical illusion - in reality, they are very far away from each other.įrom an astronomical point of view, a conjunction happens when celestial objects share the same right ascension¹ or ecliptic longitude² in the sky. ![]() In simple words, a planetary conjunction occurs when two or more planets appear close to each other in the sky. In this article, you’ll learn when the planets will meet in the sky in 2023 and how to quickly identify them using the free stargazing app Sky Tonight.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |