Photo: Space Imaging / Getty Images
For: Real America News Updated 12 Feb 2022, 12: 51 pm EST
Mars and Venus will cross paths this weekend in a rare celestial encounter
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Stargazers in the United States will be able to detect the dazzling event to the naked eye in the early hours of the 13 February.
The union, known to astronomers as a conjunction, will peak at 21: 38 ITS T, according to the stargazing site InTheSky.org.
The popular platform makes accurate predictions about the positions of the planets using public data from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL ) NASA.
During the showcase cel estinal, Venus will rotate approximately 6.5 degrees north of Mars.
The Red Planet will resemble a bright star.
The merging planets will be visible just above the horizon to the south.
Venus will be magnitude -4.6 and Mars magnitude 1.3, both in the constellation Sagittarius.
The pair will be too far apart to fit inside of the field of view of a telescope or pair of binoculars, said InTheSky.
However, they will be visible to the naked eye, making the conjunction a great way to observe the stars for the youngest space fanatics.
Conjunctions of Venus and Mars are relatively rare, but not unheard of. They usually occur a few times a year.
Your best bet for spotting them is to use an Android or iOS stargazing app.
Sometimes smartphones can be useful to pinpoint the location of constellations and planets in the night sky.
You can try downloading one of these apps to point you in the right direction.
Be sure to give your eyes a break though on your phone afterwards, stargazing is best when your eyes have adjusted to the dark.
Stargazing apps for Android and iPhone include: SkyView Lite, Star Tracker and Star Walk 2.
Some apps are free, but many of them charge, so it depends if you want to support r ads or not.
It is recommended to read the reviews of an application and see how many people have rated it before downloading it.
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