Mars and 134340 Pluto will share the same right ascension, with Mars passing 1'18" to the south of 134340 Pluto.
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 0.9, and 134340 Pluto at mag 15.1, both in the constellation Sagittarius.
The pair 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 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 |
| Mars | 19h47m10s | 21°58'S | Sagittarius | 0.9 | 6"1 |
| 134340 Pluto | 19h47m10s | 21°56'S | Sagittarius | 15.1 | 0"0 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 68° from the Sun, which is in Pisces at this time of year.
The sky on 23 Mar 2020
| The sky on 23 March 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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0% 29 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.
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| 14 Jul 2019 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
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| 18 Jul 2021 | – 134340 Pluto at opposition |
| 20 Jul 2022 | – 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.