Mars and M22 will make a close approach, passing within a mere 20.1 arcminutes of each other.
From Cambridge however, the pair will not be observable – they will reach their highest point in the sky during daytime and will be no higher than 14° above the horizon at dawn.
Mars will be at mag 1.1; and M22 will be at mag 5.2. Both objects will lie in the constellation Sagittarius.
They 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 M22 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 |
| Mars | 18h36m20s | 23°34'S | Sagittarius | 1.1 | 5"4 |
| M22 | 18h36m20s | 23°54'S | Sagittarius | 5.2 | 0"0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 61° from the Sun, which is in Aquarius at this time of year.
The sky on 28 Feb 2020
| The sky on 28 February 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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27% 5 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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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.