Mercury tonight

[markclaire50]

56 minutes ago, Ags said:

All the planets orbit in the same direction... Also, there is no "above" in space ?

Yes, I expected that reply ?, BUT nevertheless, from our perspective Mercury must be going around the sun from right to left. This is because if it was moving to the left then the lit side would have decreased, not increased. Since it orbits at a faster velocity than earth, it effectively is moving to the right, when on this side of the sun, up to maximum Eastern elongation (last Tuesday) before it will appear to move to the left relative to us, as we look at it from earth, making its lit % increase, as seen by members here. Note, when it starts moving to the left, it will obviously be starting to go around the other side of the sun. 

?

[Peter Drew]

We had some good views of Mercury over the last few days as well. Quite a difference between the telescopic quality of the images of Mercury and Mars because of the different altitude. Mars at 500x presented a surprisingly crisp disc in the best moments with more than a hint of albedo markings, Mercury by contrast was rather wobbly and suffering from atmospheric dispersion, the phase showed during steadier moments.  ?

[Stu]

15 minutes ago, markclaire50 said:

Yes, I expected that reply ?, BUT nevertheless, from our perspective Mercury must be going around the sun from right to left. This is because if it was moving to the left then the lit side would have decreased, not increased. Since it orbits at a faster velocity than earth, it effectively is moving to the right, when on this side of the sun, up to maximum Eastern elongation (last Tuesday) before it will appear to move to the left relative to us, as we look at it from earth, making its lit % increase, as seen by members here. 

?

Do these 4 help? Shown from the perspective of looking from above the North pole (not directly), and simulating today, and the following 3 weeks. Looks anti clockwise to me....

[markclaire50]

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Do these 4 help? Shown from the perspective of looking from above the North pole (not directly), and simulating today, and the following 3 weeks. Looks anti clockwise to me....

Thanks Stu. Confirms what I was thinking. ?