The planets Jupiter and Mars will make a close approach, passing within 4°17' of each other.
From Fairfield , the pair will be visible in the evening sky, becoming accessible around 19:39 (EST), 55° above your south-eastern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then reach their highest point in the sky at 21:34, 65° above your southern horizon. They will continue to be observable until around 03:44, when they sink below 9° above your western horizon.
Jupiter will be at mag -2.4 in Cancer; and Mars will be at mag -0.4 in Leo.
They will be too widely separated to fit 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 pair at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:
Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
Jupiter | 09h18m30s | 16°46'N | Cancer | -2.4 | 41"0 |
Mars | 09h36m00s | 17°43'N | Leo | -0.4 | 11"2 |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0. The pair will be at an angular separation of 126° from the Sun, which is in Pisces at this time of year.
The sky on 31 Mar 2027
The sky on 31 March 2027 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
34% 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
10 Feb 2027 | – Jupiter at opposition |
12 Apr 2027 | – Jupiter ends retrograde motion |
12 Jan 2028 | – Jupiter enters retrograde motion |
12 Mar 2028 | – Jupiter 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.