Tonight, Mars will conjunct Jupiter. Both planets will be very close to each other in the sky. As astronomy popularizer Karol Wójcicki said, this phenomenon will be visible even in a large city.
As Karol Wójcicki, an astronomy popularizer and author of the blog “Z głowy w gwiazdach” (With your head in the stars) announced on social media, the closest approach of Mars and Jupiter, or conjunction, will occur in the sky next night.
“Both planets will appear above the northeastern horizon around 1 o'clock and will be separated by a distance of only 21 arc minutes – that's less than the diameter of the full moon,” he wrote. “Due to their brightness and proximity, the pair of planets will be totally conspicuous! You will see it both under a dark sky and in the center of a large city,” added Wójcicki. He pointed out, however, that initially the planets will be very low above the horizon, which may lead to them being obscured by buildings or trees. Around 3 o'clock Mars and Jupiter are already supposed to be 25 degrees above the horizon.
Mars and Jupiter in the Night Sky. “Together They Will Be Eye-Catching as Hell”
“Jupiter will shine with a brightness of -2.2 mag. Mars will reach +0.8 mag that night. Together they will be as conspicuous as hell, so you will simply spot them from everywhere: from the city, from the countryside, from the sea or from the mountains,” he wrote on social media.
As Wójcicki admitted, such a conjunction is only an apparent rapprochement. “From the perspective of Earth, the planets will be on the same line of sight, but in fact there will be a huge distance between them: Mars will be 228.3 million kilometers away from Earth, and Jupiter 802.8 million kilometers.”
This is not the only attraction in the sky that you will be able to see. Although the peak of the Perseid shower is already behind us, there are still many “shooting stars” appearing.
What about the weather?
In most of the country, weather conditions should be favorable for night observations. The night will be clear, only in the west and south of the country there will be more cumulus clouds.
tvnmeteo.pl, “With your head in the stars”
Main image source: Shutterstock