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Today, Wednesday, the sky of the Arab world is witnessing the closest conjunction of two planets, Mercury and Mars, at the dome of the sky at dusk, as they will be separated by less than 0.1 degrees on the western horizon, which will allow the two planets to share the same field of view of the telescope.
And the Jeddah Astronomical Society revealed, in a report, that first the brilliant planet Venus is observed shortly after sunset, and then over time these two planets will appear under Venus, but they are close to the horizon, where Mercury will be to the right of the observer and Mars next to it.
Mercury and Mars
In general, observing this planetary conjunction will be easier for people in the southern hemisphere than in northern latitudes, as Mercury and Mars will stay above the horizon longer after sunset at southern latitudes, but on the contrary, they go to bed shortly after sunset. at southern latitudes.
expressive
For northern mid-latitudes, binoculars may be needed to view Mercury and Mars. Mercury is eight times brighter than Mars, so when you see Mercury with the naked eye, binoculars are used to see Mars kissing Mercury in the same field of view as the telescope.
Scientifically, it is said that two planets are in conjunction when they are north and south of each other in right ascension, and right ascension on the celestial sphere is equivalent to longitude on the surface. Earth, according to the president of the Astronomical Society of Jeddah, engineer Majid Abu Zahira, who added, saying: “The closest planetary conjunction occurs when the two planets are separated by less than 0.1 degrees. = 6 minutes of arc = 360 seconds of arc on the dome of the sky, The conjunction of Mercury and Mars per day is the only closest conjunction between two planets for the year 2021.
The last visible conjunction closest to less than (0.1 °) occurred between Mercury and Mars, it was September 16, 2017. It will repeat again on August 23, 2032.
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