On Friday (Nov. 11), the moon will share the identical right ascension in an association known as a conjunction.
Because the 17-day-old moon passes two levels to the north of the Red Planet, the 2 astronomical our bodies will even make a detailed method within the sky. These shut approaches of celestial our bodies that do not end in an eclipse or an occultation are known as an appulse.
The conjunction of Mars and the moon will start at 8:46 a.m. EST (1346 GMT) and can turn out to be seen within the sky over New York at round 7:25 p.m. EST (0025 GMT on Nov. 12) in line with In The Sky (opens in new tab). The conjunction will probably be at an altitude of seven levels above the horizon to the northeast right now. (Bear in mind: When you maintain your fist out at arm’s size, its width will correspond to roughly 10 levels within the sky.)
Associated: Night sky, November 2022: What you can see tonight [maps]
The conjunction of the moon and Mars will attain its highest level within the sky, 73 levels above the southern horizon, at 2:09 a.m. EST (0709 GMT) on Saturday morning. The conjunction will disappear within the daybreak twilight at round 6:17 a.m. EST (1117 GMT) when the moon and Mars are 36 levels above the horizon within the west.
In the course of the conjunction, the moon and Mars will seem like within the constellation Taurus, the Bull, and could have a right ascension of 05h34m40s.
The moon could have a magnitude of -12.5 and Mars a magnitude of -1.5, with the minus prefix indicating notably vibrant objects within the sky over Earth.
The moon and Mars will probably be too broadly separated throughout the conjunction for the association to be seen with a telescope. It will likely be observable with binoculars or with the bare eye in favorable viewing circumstances, nonetheless.
The fourth planet from the sun, Mars is without doubt one of the 5 brightest planets that may be seen with the bare eye over Earth. The opposite 4 most seen planets are the solar system’s largest planets, the fuel giants Jupiter and Saturn, and the 2 planets closest to the sun and inside Earth’s orbit, Venus and Mercury.
These 5 planets are seen for a lot of the yr, barring transient intervals when they’re too near the sun to be seen. It’s uncommon that each one of those planets will probably be seen on the similar time on a single night time, nonetheless.
On the ultimate day of November, skywatchers will get one other good alternative to view Mars when the Purple Planet strikes to its closest level to Earth, inflicting it to extend in dimension and brightness. The 2 planets are separated by round 50 million miles (80 million kilometers), simply over half the gap between the Earth and the sun.
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