Mars and Neptune will share the same right ascension, with Mars passing 2’14” to the south of Neptune.
At around the same time, the two objects will also make a close approach, technically called an appulse.
From Los Angeles however, the pair will not be observable – they will reach their highest point in the sky during daytime and will be no higher than 6° above the horizon at dawn.
Mars will be at mag 1.1, and Neptune at mag 7.9, both in the constellation Pisces.
The pair will be close enough to fit within the field of view of a telescope,
but will also be visible
through a pair of binoculars.
A graph of the angular separation between Mars and
Neptune around the time of closest approach is
available here.
The positions of the two objects at the moment of conjunction will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Mars | 23h56m30s | 1°44’S | Pisces | 1.1 | 4″7 |
| Neptune | 23h56m30s | 1°42’S | Pisces | 7.9 | 2″2 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The pair will be at an angular separation of
40° from the Sun, which is in Aries at
this time of year.
The sky on 28 Apr 2024
Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Related news
Image credit
The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.
