Close approach of the Moon and Venus
Updated: Sep 4
The Moon and Venus will make a close approach, passing within 2°44' of each other. The Moon will be 3 days old.
From Nicosia, the pair will become visible around 18:38 (EEST), 16° above your south-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 4 minutes after the Sun at 20:26.
The Moon will be at mag -10.7; and Venus will be at mag -4.2. Both objects will lie in the constellation Scorpius.
They 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.
At around the same time, the pair will also share the same right ascension – called a conjunction.
A graph of the angular separation between the Moon and Venus around the time of closest approach is available here.
The positions of the pair at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
ObjectRight AscensionDeclinationConstellationMagnitudeAngular SizeThe