mercury

[kniclander]

if I can find the elusive little fellow tonight, what sort of mag will i need to resolve its disc? how "easy" is it to find and realistically, how long after sunset is it first visible?

thanks all

[Talitha]

I'm not too sure what you'd need to resolve the disc, but it's viewable with my 11x70 binoculars. You need a pretty clean horizon, and have to wait till twilight is dark enough to see at least one bright star nearby.. right now, that'd be Aldeberan.

When the Sun sets, visually mark the spot on the horizon... Mercury will set at about the same spot, because they're both on the Ecliptic. When it gets dark enough to see Aldeberan, use binoculars to scan the sky between the star and the spot on the horizon, and eventually you'll see Mercury. At magnitude -0.9, it'll be the brightest object in the area... you can't mistake it for anything else. Good luck!

[John]

Mercury's disk is currently only around 6 arc seconds across I think so you will need some power to see it, and it's phase. Funny thing is that it looks "non-steller" at lower powers as well.

I reckon you might need 150x or more to see the phase.

John

[proflight2000]

I spent yesterday (yes day) tracking Mercury across the sky, I could not see it of course in daylight, and kept a close visual on the area where the sun sets, oh dear, right behind the house across from me. I need a big hill I think.