The moon all but kisses the brilliant red supergiant star Antares this week. It is a spectacular meeting but one that will require some effort to spot from the UK. To stand a chance of seeing the conjunction, you will need to find somewhere with a clear southern horizon. A hill to stand on would also be advantageous as the pair will already be setting by the time they become visible.
The chart shows the view looking south-west from London at 19:30 BST. The pair will already be visible against the deepening twilight. The moon will be around five and a half days old, in its waxing crescent phase, and will have just under 30% of its visible surface illuminated.
The conjunction is much easier to spot from the southern hemisphere because Antares is in the southern constellation of Scorpius, the scorpion. This means it appears much higher in the sky than from the northern hemisphere.
From the southern hemisphere, because of the different angle at which the conjunction can be seen, the pair will draw even closer. From certain parts of the southern Indian Ocean, and on Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic, the moon will pass in front of Antares, occulting it completely.
