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Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel
Explanation:
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and
never moves far from our parent
star in Earth's sky.
Racing around its tight orbit, this well-done world
is a little over 1/3 the diameter of Earth and
is often lost to
our view in the solar glare.
But, just one day before the August 11 total
solar eclipse, astronomer
Tunc Tezel captured this fleeting view of a close conjunction of Mercury
and the soon to be
silhouetted Moon as seen from Turkey.
Mercury at the lower right shines brightly in reflected
sunlight
while only a thin crescent of the almost new
Moon is directly illuminated.
The rest of the lunar nearside is faintly visible though,
illuminated by light from an
almost full Earth.
On Monday,
November 15th, Mercury will actually be seen to
transit or pass across the disk of the Sun for well placed
observers in the
pacific hemisphere.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Mercury - conjunction - Moon
Publications with words: Mercury - conjunction - Moon
See also:
- APOD: 2026 August 25 Á Earths Shadow Visualized with Lunar Eclipses
- APOD: 2026 May 11 Á Moon Setting Behind Teide Volcano
- APOD: 2026 May 9 Á Messier Craters in Stereo
- APOD: 2026 April 15 Á The ISS Transits the Moon
- APOD: 2026 April 11 Á Artemis II: Flight Day 6
- The Bay of Rainbows
- Earthset from Orion