The Elusive Planet Mercury Spotted at its ‘Greatest Elongation’ from the Sun

See Venus and the first-quarter moon, as well!

Mercury tends to be the hardest to find of the 5 “naked-eye” planets in Earth’s night sky since the small planet tends to stick around in the sun’s brilliant glare.

However, on Sept. 13, Mercury undoubtedly reached its farthest separation from the sun as seen from Earth, also referred to as its greatest eastern elongation, which makes this the best night to search for the planet throughout its present evening apparition. After that night, the Earth will certainly appear to make a slight U-turn in our night sky and sneak closer to the sun once more. To securely see Mercury, wait till sunset– its closeness to the sun can make it unsafe to observe without proper eye protection.

Since August, Mercury has embellished our evening skies, having arisen from behind the sun– a place that astronomers call superior solar conjunction, where the planet is not noticeable from Earth, on Aug. 1. It has gradually inched further from the sun every evening since. After getting to its greatest eastern elongation tonight, the innermost planet will start to slide closer to the sun up until it again vanishes in the sun’s brilliant glow in early October.

Mercury will reach inferior solar conjunction, move in front of the sun from Earth’s viewpoint on Oct. 9. It will hide in the sun’s glare, unobservable to the human eye, from late September through mid-October, when it will emerge one more time as a “morning star” visible before dawn.

Skywatchers in or near the Southern Hemisphere will have the very best sights of Mercury’s greatest eastern elongation tonight since the planet is greater in the sky for a long time after sundown in these locations. From mid-northern latitudes and up, Mercury might be overly low on the horizon to detect when the sun collections.

For instance, in New York City on September 13th, Mercury set at 7:55 p.m. local time, just 48 mins after sundown, according to Time and Date’s night sky calculator. However, Mercury did not set in Miami until 8:34 p.m. local time, while the sun sets there more than an hour earlier, at 7:26 p.m local time. Those observing from Buenos Aires, Argentina, will certainly see Mercury set at 8:52 p.m. local time, beyond two hrs after sunset.

If you could not catch a view of Mercury throughout its latest night apparition, you will have one more chance to see the evasive little planet when it returns to the early morning sky in late October. Mercury will undoubtedly reach its greatest western elongation from the sun on Oct. 24, after which it will bust another U-turn and head towards one more superior solar conjunction on Nov. 28.

Originally published on Space.com. Read the original article.