Meeting Mercury at Dusk in July

mercury
The Moon, Venus and Mercury from 2022. Credit: Rob Sparks

Mercury puts on one of its best apparitions for 2024 this month.

Where have all of the planets gone? The late evening fall of dusk in early July also sees a sky seemingly vacant of familiar naked eye planets. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are now denizens of dawn, and will stay that way for most of the remainder of 2024.

But two challenging planets are now emerging low to the west at dusk: Mercury and Venus. The two interior worlds are now mounting a slow return, as the hunt is now on the recover the two after sunset.

Continue reading “Meeting Mercury at Dusk in July”

Prelude to Transit: Catching Mercury Under Dusk Skies

Mercury and the Moon
The waxing gibbous Moon passes Mercury (low to the right). Image credit and copyright: Tavi Greiner

Have you ever seen Mercury? The diminutive innermost world takes the center stage next month, as it transits the Sun as seen from our early perspective on May 9th. This week, we’d like to turn your attention to bashful Mercury’s dusk apparition, which sets up the clockwork celestial gears for this event. Continue reading “Prelude to Transit: Catching Mercury Under Dusk Skies”