Mercury alert!

[Oak2004]

(No, not the metaphysical Mercury, but the physical one).

Today is a great day to see the planet Mercury (very very few people have, at least knowingly, seen the planet). I just spotted it out of my unobstructed west-facing window a few moments ago here in Vermont.

It is a short distance below blazing Venus in the sky after sunset -- pick up a sky chart (you can find one online) for your time and location, or use, as I do, planetarium software, to get your bearings. East coasters need not fret at a lost opportunity: it looked to me like it should be visible still tomorrow.

Mercury is not actually all that hard to see when it is visible-- it's fairly bright, even against the glow of twilight (though nothing like that searchlight in the sky above it tonight, Venus). The only catch is that you need to know where and when to look, and you need to have an unobstructed view of the horizon. The last one can be the catch: I had never seen the planet until I moved into my current apartment, which is on the fourth floor of a high rise overlooking Lake Champlain. Now I am treated to spectacular sunsets over the lake and against the distant Adirondacks every clear evening, and I make a sport of picking Mercury out when it is in the west after sunset.

[stellanoir]

1. Cool.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out tonight. The sky will be clear then. woohoo.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. I don't know. I'm too afraid of it going retrograde once I find it.

:rofl: :hi: