Mars approaching Saturn and nearby stars

Event Date: June 23rd
Time: 9:30 PM

Brief

   After a bit of a layoff from Mars and Saturn, let's take a look at the "red" approaching the "ringed", regarding separation.  When I last talked about them, Mars was near the Leo-Virgo border, and has finally left the Lion's celestial territory (strange wording!) for the Maiden three dates ago.  As it continues to pick up in pro-grade rate, Saturn reaches stationary in a couple of days.  The result will be that of a faster and faster catchup during the summer.  Here are the three this evening, with Saturn at almost its closest to Spica (4.8º).  It will appear about this close for the next two months.

Detailed

   By August, although it will not be a very close encounter for Saturn and Spica, the star will form a near equilateral triangle with the planets in a binocular field.  As Mars continues to catch up with Saturn, try predicting when in August the two will have their closest meeting, and when the triangle will be closest to equilateral.
   Why a triangle?  There will be arc-like configurations as well that fit in binoculars.  However, with Spica being a first magnitude star and similar in magnitude to both planets, a triangle will be--perhaps arguably--be the most interesting configuration.  Since the star is near the ecliptic, planets "visit" it often, normally one after another.  When two planets come this close to the same star, especially with magnitudes similar, that is much more rare.  After this year, with Saturn taking 28+ years to return to Spica and Mars taking 650+ days to come back to it, these two will not revisit Spica as a triangle again until August 2042.  Since that is so far away, I will leave it at that for now! 
   Sticking with this evening, on a similar topic involving other close separations with Mars, take a look at this second image and the star near the planet: Zavijava (Beta Virginis) magnitude 3.6.  Looking at the celestial plot I put in that 5º binocular view, look at how Mars is about to get very close to this star-- 4 evenings from now, and worth putting a telescope on!  Despite that, Mars spends this evening even closer by a few arc-minutes, with another dimmer Virgo star (6.9 in magnitude).  The two are only 8 arc-minutes apart.  The separation between Mars and Zavijava will be 13 arc-minutes at best the evening of the 27th, and I will show them then.

click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.