2024, July 1: Mars-Moon Conjunction

July 1, 2024: A Mars-Moon conjunction occurs in the eastern sky during morning twilight. 

2024, July 1: The Mars-Moon conjunction occurs in the eastern sky during morning twilight.
Chart Caption – 2024, July 1: The Mars-Moon conjunction occurs in the eastern sky during morning twilight.

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

A Mars-Moon Conjunction

Before sunrise a Mars-Moon conjunction occurs in the eastern sky.  Here’s what to see:

One hour before sunrise, look eastward for a slim crescent moon, 23% illuminated, standing about one-third of the way up in the east.  The crescent is pointing toward the sun during mid-twilight.

Earthshine

Venus and crescent Moon, November 12, 2020
Photo Caption – 2020, November 12: One hour before sunrise, brilliant Venus is 0.3° to the lower left of Theta Virginis (θ Vir) in the east-southeastern sky. The crescent moon is 6.5° above Venus and 2.9° to the lower left of Gamma Virginis (γ Vir).

Look for earthshine on the moon’s night part.  This effect is from sunlight reflecting from Earth’s oceans, clouds, and land that softly lights up the lunar night.  The moon causes the same effect when it is near the Full phase in Earth’s sky.  Moonlight lights up the terrestrial features and casts shadows.

Earthshine is visible without a binocular, but the view is improved with the optical assist.  Photograph it with a tripod-mounted camera and exposures up to a few seconds.

Mars - This image shows the globe of Mars set against a dark background. The disc of the planet features yellow, orange, blue and green patches, all with an overall muted grey hue, representing the varying composition of the surface.
Photo Caption – To mark 20 years of ESA’s Mars Express, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) team has produced a new global color mosaic: Mars as never seen before. The mosaic reveals the planet’s surface color and composition in spectacular detail. (Photo: European Space Agency, ESA)

Mars, dimmer than what we might expect, is 4.4° to the moon’s lower left and in the same binocular field of view.

During the next lunation, the moon passes Mars again on July 30. The Mars-Moon conjunction distance is 4.6°.  The phase is thicker and Mars is farther eastward, approaching a conjunction with Jupiter on August 14th.  At the next Mars-Moon conjunction, the Red Planet appears in the same binocular field with the Hyades star cluster.

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