Jupiter and Mars will share the same right ascension, with Jupiter passing 49' to the south of Mars.
At around the same time, the two objects will also make a close approach, technically called an appulse.
From Cambridge , the pair will become visible at around 20:23 (EDT), 59° above your southern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 02:54.
Jupiter will be at mag -2.2, and Mars at mag 0.2, both in the constellation Leo.
The pair will be a little too widely separated to fit comfortably within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible to the naked eye or through a pair of binoculars.
A graph of the angular separation between Jupiter and Mars 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 |
| Jupiter | 10h12m20s | 12°23'N | Leo | -2.2 | 38"2 |
| Mars | 10h12m20s | 13°13'N | Leo | 0.2 | 8"9 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 106° from the Sun, which is in Aries at this time of year.
The sky on 1 May 2024
| The sky on 1 May 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
40% 23 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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
| 26 Apr 1980 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
| 24 Jan 1981 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
| 26 Mar 1981 | – Jupiter at opposition |
| 27 May 1981 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
Image credit
The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.