Mercury – Page 3 – Astronomy Now

See Mercury at its best, Venus and a young Moon in the March evening sky

12 March 2018 Ade Ashford

Mercury attains a greatest easterly elongation of 18 degrees from the Sun on 15 March, the innermost planet’s best evening showing for Northern Hemisphere observers for the entire year. From 12–20 March, planets Mercury and Venus remain just 4 degrees apart low in the west 45 minutes after sunset as seen from the British Isles.

See the Moon and planets gather at dawn

3 January 2018 Ade Ashford

It currently pays to be an early riser if you wish to view the planets, for it’s all happening at dawn in the skies of Western Europe. Find innermost planet Mercury, see a near miss of Mars and Jupiter on 7 January, then a fabulous binocular conjunction of the waning crescent Moon, the Red planet and Jupiter on 11 January!

See the old crescent Moon join the morning planet parade on 18 September

15 September 2017 Ade Ashford

Observers in Western Europe should look to the east an hour before sunrise on Monday, 18 September to see not only dazzling Venus and the old crescent Moon in the same binocular field of view, but planets Mars and Mercury against the stars of Leo too.

See Mercury meet Regulus and Mars near Venus an hour before sunrise

6 September 2017 Ade Ashford

Observers in the UK and Western Europe should find an observing location offering an unobscured eastern horizon an hour before sunrise on Sunday, 10 September to see innermost planet Mercury just 0.6 degrees from Regulus, the brightest star in Leo. Conspicuous planet Venus is your convenient celestial guide to finding Regulus, Mercury and Mars.

Team to use airborne telescopes to study Sun and Mercury during total solar eclipse

25 July 2017 Astronomy Now

A team led by the Southwest Research Institute will use airborne telescopes aboard NASA research aircraft to study the solar corona and Mercury’s surface during this summer’s total solar eclipse.

Mercury’s prominent evening show under southern skies

13 July 2017 Ade Ashford

Mercury is generally something of a challenge to observe, but the run-up to a particularly favourable easterly elongation occurring on 30 July provides ample opportunities for locating the innermost planet in the evening sky — particularly from the Southern Hemisphere, where a prominent celestial marker in the form of a 2-day-old Moon passes close by on 25 July.

BepiColombo Mercury mission tested for journey into ‘pizza oven’

10 July 2017 Stephen Clark

Three spacecraft built in Europe and Japan have completed their final joint tests to ensure they are ready for departure to Mercury on an Ariane 5 rocket late next year on the nearly £1.5 billion BepiColombo mission to survey the Solar System’s innermost planet.

See Mercury at its best in the evening sky

26 March 2017 Ade Ashford

Mercury attains a greatest easterly elongation of 19 degrees from the Sun on 1 April. This solar separation combined with a favourable inclination of the ecliptic to the western horizon an hour after sunset, means that the period 25 March to around 8 April offers the year’s best evening showing of the innermost planet for Northern Hemisphere observers.

See the crescent Moon near Venus on 3 December

1 December 2016 Ade Ashford

Observers in the UK will find Venus almost directly below the three-day-old Moon low in the south-southwest in deep twilight an hour after sunset on 3 December. The pair will fit in the same field of view of most 8x and 7x binoculars, but a deep-sky treat lies in store for telescope users.

Catch Mars and Venus in the early evening sky of late November

25 November 2016 Ade Ashford

Find a location that offers you an unobstructed view of the horizon from south to southwest an hour after sunset. With clear skies, you’ll be able to follow Venus and Mars from night to night on their celestial peregrinations through the constellations of Sagittarius and Capricornus. The two planets almost keep pace with each other throughout the remainder of November.