The stunning Mars-Regulus conjunction
Taken by Gianluca Masi on June 16, 2025 @
Manciano, Italy
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Date Taken: 2025:06:17 00:36:00
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I'm pleased to share an image of the stunning Mars - Regulus conjunction, taken a couple of hours ago.
This image shows the Red Planet sharing the same spot up there with the star Regulus, the brightest one in Leo, the Lion. The beauty of the colours is mind-blowing.
The image was taken from Manciano, in the beautiful countryside of Maremma, Tuscany, Italy, using the wide field-of-view astrograph available at the Virtual Telescope Project facility installed there.
Mars is about 275 million kilometers away, whereas Regulus is nearly 80 light-years away (about 800 trillion kilometers).
This image is showing something exceptional: between the two bright gems, there is a pale spot, a bit shifted closer to Regulus (the blue object). That phantom is the Leo I dwarf galaxy, about 820.000 light-years distant (eight quintillion two hundred quadrillion of kilometers), it is a member of the Local Group.
Capturing it in the same frame as Mars and Regulus is something rare and deeply evocative.
Photographer's website:
https://www.virtualtelescope.eu
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