The recent "Planetary Trio with the Waning Crescent" happened ... behind the cloud

 

Luckily, Serial Planetary Events is not yet over, the next one will be "Mars-Saturn Conjunction" (or Saturn-Mars Conjunction) on 5 April!

 

Astronomically speaking, a "conjunction" happens when two celestial bodies have the same right ascension or ecliptic longitude, both are technical terms in celestial coordinate systems, and the bodies involved can be the Sun, Moon, planets, or stars. In the case of a conjunction between planets, or between a planet and the Moon, two celestial bodies are in close proximity to each other in the sky.

 

To appreciate "Mars-Saturn Conjunction", simply look at the east-southeast sky at around 5:00 a.m. on 5 April. Mars and Saturn will be about 0.3 degrees apart. To the naked eye, Mars will be juxtaposed south of Saturn. At that time, the brightness of Mars will be 1 magnitude, and the brightness of Saturn will be 0.9. While the two planets have similar brightness, Mars is redder than Saturn, so it is easy to tell them apart. The two planets seem to be connected, but under a telescope, there is still a distance between the two.

 

If you miss this opportunity, you will have to wait till for the next Mars-Saturn Conjunction at around 4 a.m. on 11 April 2024.