Uranus and M8 will make a close approach, passing within a mere 55.6 arcminutes of each other.
From Los Angeles , the pair will become visible at around 20:09 (PDT), 31° above your southern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 00:32.
Uranus will be at mag 5.7; and M8 will be at mag 5.8. Both objects will lie in the constellation Sagittarius.
They will be a little too widely separated to fit comfortably within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible through a pair of binoculars.
A graph of the angular separation between Uranus and M8 around the time of closest approach is available here.
The positions of the pair at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| Uranus | 18h06m20s | 23°42'S | Sagittarius | 5.7 | 3"6 |
| M8 | 18h03m40s | 24°22'S | Sagittarius | 5.8 | 45'00"0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 104° from the Sun, which is in Leo at this time of year.
The sky on 13 May 2025
| The sky on 13 May 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
97% 16 days old |
All times shown in PDT.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
Image credit
The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.