Identifying the minimum crossing angle achievable in the LHC is a key parameter to identify the collider luminosity reach. In this note, we summarise the observations collected during a dedicated experiment performed in 2015, where the strength of the long range beam-beam interaction is varied by reducing the crossing angle at IP1 and IP5. The crossing angle and the impact of the long range beam-beam interaction is analysed with respect to the beam and luminosity lifetimes. The effect of reducing Landau octupoles initially operating at 476 [A] and high chromaticity values (15 units) are also shown. The minimum crossing angle achievable with collisions is identified, together with the impact on beam and luminosity lifetime