When two or more planets appear near one another – within a few degrees or less –the objects are said to be in conjunction. But don’t be fooled. Although the objects appear close by from our earth-bound perspective, the two objects are still hundreds or thousands of astronomical units apart. There’s no need to worry about a collision.
Figure 88: Screen capture when a conjunction is found.
Finding out when two or three planets will be in conjunction is easy with TheSky’s Conjunction Finder. It can locate conjunctions between any two or three planets and/or the Sun and Moon, as viewed from Earth.
Select the Conjunction Finder command from the Tools menu and then mark two or three objects in the Objects list. Earth is listed for reference only; it cannot be selected as part of the search.
Click the Start button to begin the search. TheSky uses the value entered in the Within (degrees) number input to determine how close the objects must fall before a conjunction is reported. Once a conjunction is found, the Sky Chart is updated to show it.