Jupiter and M44 will make a close approach, passing within a mere 47.4 arcminutes of each other.
From Fairfield , the pair will be visible in the evening sky, becoming accessible around 19:23 (EDT), 67° above your southern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then reach their highest point in the sky at 19:45, 68° above your southern horizon. They will continue to be observable until around 01:27, when they sink below 16° above your western horizon.
Jupiter will be at mag -2.3; and M44 will be at mag 3.1. Both objects will lie in the constellation Cancer.
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 Jupiter and M44 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 |
| Jupiter | 08h42m40s | 19°06'N | Cancer | -2.3 | 39"8 |
| M44 | 08h40m20s | 19°40'N | Cancer | 3.1 | 0"0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 114° from the Sun, which is in Pisces at this time of year.
The sky on 1 Oct 2024
| The sky on 1 October 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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0% 28 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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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.