Mars "gaining" on Saturn

Event Date: June 8th
Time: 9:00 PM

Brief

   Let's take a peak at Mars, which is now starting to pick up speed faster in pro-grade motion.  After spending several weeks in Leo, which is where we saw it during its opposition, it is approaching the Virgo border, crossing it later this month.  We will take a look at it and Saturn here partly zoomed in, with the latter currently in Virgo.  Since I am showing the celestial paths with the increment markers for every 10 days, the 25% zoom in (75º viewing field) lets us see the markers a little more clearly for slower moving Saturn, along with Mars' path for when it was resuming its pro-grade motion not long ago.

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

Detailed

   While in retrograde during that time for a little over two months, that movement was sandwiched by the prograde motion, as we see with our planets.  While still in Leo, Mars will eventually start catching up with Saturn more quickly, 35º east of it this evening.  The ringed attraction remains in retrograde for another two and a half weeks.  During the time after that, as Saturn goes stationary and then very slowly in pro-grade, Mars will gain on it.  Even as Saturn picks up a bit of movement west to east, Mars is so much closer to us and the Sun than it, that before Summer is over, we will have a conjunction of the two planets.  Mars continues to dim, and is currently only +0.6.  Saturn is slightly brighter right now, yet not noticeably.  By the time that the conjunction happens, Mars will further dim closer to the +1.0 mark, while Saturn dims more slowly.