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Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado
Explanation:
Have you ever seen the planet Mercury?
Because
Mercury orbits so close to the Sun,
it never wanders far from the Sun in
Earth's sky.
If trailing the Sun,
Mercury will be visible
low on the horizon for only a short while
before sunset.
If leading the Sun, Mercury
will be visible only shortly before
sunrise.
So at certain times of the year an
informed skygazer with a little determination
can usually pick Mercury
out from a site with an unobscured horizon.
Above, a lot of determination has been combined
with a little
digital trickery to
show Mercury's successive positions during March of 2000.
Each picture was taken from the same location in Spain
when the Sun itself was 10 degrees below the
horizon and superposed
on the single most
photogenic sunset.
By the middle of this month, Mercury will again be well
placed for viewing above the western horizon at sunset,
but by the end of April it will have faded and dropped into the
twilight.
On May 7th,
Mercury
will cross the Sun's disk.
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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 - sky
Publications with words: Mercury - sky
See also: