Spotting The Elusive Mercury, June 24th.

[Grotemobile]

Right now is a great time for planet-watching! In the west, in evening twilight, you can't miss the "dynamic duo" of brilliant Venus and, to its upper left, somewhat dimmer Jupiter. Saturn is bright too, lurking low in the southeast after sunset.

Meanwhile, late June offers you a chance to see Mercury, the most elusive of the planets visible by eye. Because it's the innermost planet, Mercury is never found far from the Sun in the sky. But on June 24th it reaches what astronomers call greatest elongation, meaning it's separated from the Sun as far as it can be in the sky. You'll need to be an especially early riser to see Mercury - as the chart here shows, the best time to look is about 45 minutes before sunrise. Make sure you have a clear view toward east; binoculars will help pick out Mercury in the twilight glow. This was copied from,Sky & Telescope.Com.Looked interesting.

Steve.

[xtreemchaos]

thanks for heads up,i will be looking out for mercury.thanks for sharing..charl..

[John]

Thanks for the heads up

I managed to catch Mercury with in a decent scope a couple of years back. It reminded me of a tiny version of Venus. You could certainly make out the phase and the very small planetatry disk

[alan potts]

I found Mercury fairly easy in the evening sky last time about  6 weeks back. it was easily naked eye and showed a nice cresent at X200.

alan

[Grotemobile]

Thanks for the heads up

 

I managed to catch Mercury with in a decent scope a couple of years back. It reminded me of a tiny version of Venus. You could certainly make out the phase and the very small planetatry disk

 

 

I found Mercury fairly easy in the evening sky last time about  6 weeks back. it was easily naked eye and showed a nice cresent at X200.

 

alan

 

Did not realise, it was that easy to

spot, in the sky.

Steve.

[trynda1701]

Although I had taken quite a long break from regular telescopic astronomy till two years back, through magazines I kept up to date with observing events with binoculars, and always tried to catch Mercury at greatest evening elongation, although not always with success.

But this year, I've caught both of Mercury's evening elongations so far. The first was aided by the Venus conjunction, so found it despite low elevation, and the second was much easier as spring evening elongations are usually the best for us here in the UK.

I think I've seen the phase in a scope years ago, about half phase without digging through the logbook.

Mark

[Paul73]

We had a great view last November/December.

I'd say that it is the hardest of all the planets because of its short appearances and generally low sunlit positions.

Paul