Mercury and 134340 Pluto will share the same right ascension, with Mercury passing 7°35' to the south of 134340 Pluto.
From Cambridge however, the pair will not be readily observable since they will be very close to the Sun, at a separation of only 16° from it.
Mercury will be at mag -0.5 in the constellation Ophiuchus, and 134340 Pluto at mag 14.6 in the neighbouring constellation of Serpens Cauda.
A graph of the angular separation between Mercury and 134340 Pluto 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 |
| Mercury | 17h38m50s | 23°28'S | Ophiuchus | -0.5 | 5"0 |
| 134340 Pluto | 17h38m50s | 15°53'S | Serpens Cauda | 14.6 | 0"0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 14° from the Sun, which is in Sagittarius at this time of year.
The sky on 3 Oct 2024
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1% 1 day old |
All times shown in EDT.
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Warning
Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.
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
| 14 Jun 2005 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
| 16 Jun 2006 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
| 19 Jun 2007 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
| 20 Jun 2008 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
Image credit
The Moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, with the Very Large Telescope in the foreground. Image © Y. Beletsky, ESO, 2009.