{"id":35896,"date":"2022-08-19T10:31:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T10:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=111169"},"modified":"2022-08-19T10:43:10","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T10:43:10","slug":"see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"See Mars meet Uranus and the Pleiades this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Pete Lawrence\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 19 August 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Mars has had some interesting encounters this month, passing close to Uranus and the Pleiades.<\/p>\n

On 2 August, mag. +0.2 Mars sat just 1.3\u00ba south of mag. +5.8 Uranus.<\/p>\n

Mars slowly drifted east from Uranus over the following mornings, but remained fairly close to the dimmer planet for several days.<\/p>\n

On 5 August, for example, Mars and Uranus were just 2.3\u00ba apart.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
A simulation of planets Uranus and Mars as they appeared through 7\u00d750 binoculars on 2 August, 02:00 BST (01:00 UT). The variable runaway star 53 Arietis is close by. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

After this planetary encounter, Mars continued tracking east, and will appear to pass 5.7\u00ba south of the Pleiades<\/a> open cluster on the morning of 22 August.<\/p>\n

Before this, on 19 August, both planet and cluster are joined by the last-quarter Moon, located 5\u00ba west of Mars on this date.<\/p>\n

The Moon will pass 2\u00ba north of Mars at 13:00 BST (12:00 UT) on 19 August under daylight conditions, while 16\u00ba above the western horizon.<\/p>\n

On the morning of Saturday 20 August, the now 41%-lit waning crescent Moon<\/a> will sit 7.7\u00ba east of Mars.<\/p>\n

Mars has now reached its opposition<\/a> constellation of Taurus and will remain within this constellation\u2019s boundaries for the remainder of 2022 and into 2023.<\/p>\n

This is a sign that we are getting ever closer to Mars opposition<\/a> on 8 December 2022.<\/p>\n

As it does this, it\u2019ll also be performing a retrograde<\/a> loop, reversing direction to head west before repeating the action to resume its eastern track.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
A composite image showing the apparent reversal of Mars\u2019s movement in the night sky, known as retrograde motion. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re interested in long-term astrophotography<\/a> of the position and brightness of Mars against the backdrop of Taurus<\/a>, the coming weeks will allow you to record and present the retrograde loop against the stars of the Bull.<\/p>\n

It will also offer an opportunity to compare the colour of Mars with the orange-tinted Aldebaran<\/a> (mag. +0.8 Alpha (\u03b1<\/span>) Tauri).<\/p>\n

This guide originally appeared in the August 2022 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n

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By Pete Lawrence Published: Friday, 19 August 2022 at 12:00 am Mars has had some interesting encounters this month, passing close to Uranus and the Pleiades. On 2 August, mag. +0.2 Mars sat just 1.3\u00ba south of mag. +5.8 Uranus. Mars slowly drifted east from Uranus over the following mornings, but remained fairly close to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":35897,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend.jpg",1000,930,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend-300x279.jpg",300,279,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend-768x714.jpg",768,714,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend.jpg",800,744,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend.jpg",1000,930,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/08\/see-mars-meet-uranus-and-the-pleiades-this-weekend.jpg",1000,930,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Friday, 19 August 2022 at 12:00 am Mars has had some interesting encounters this month, passing close to Uranus and the Pleiades. On 2 August, mag. +0.2 Mars sat just 1.3\u00ba south of mag. +5.8 Uranus. Mars slowly drifted east from Uranus over the following mornings, but remained fairly close to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/35896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}