Mercury in the Sunset

Thursday, March 18. 2010

Over the next few weeks Mercury will be making it's first evening apparition of 2010. it will reach a maximum elongation of almost 20° on April 8th. This will not be the best appearance of Mercury for 2010, as the August apparition will be much further from the Sun and higher in the Sky, but it will potentially be the most beautiful.

Mercury in 2010
Apparition	Date	Elongation	Magnitude
Morning	Jan 27	24.8°W	+0.1
Evening	Apr 8	19.3°E	+0.3
Morning	May 26	25.1°W	+0.7
Evening	Aug 7	27.4°E	+0.6
Morning	Sep 19	17.9°W	-0.1
Evening	Dec 1	21.5°E	-0.2

Data from the Mercury Chaser's Calculator, by John Walker

During much of this apparition Mercury will accompany Venus as they both rise higher in the sunset. They will closest on April 3rd at just less than 3° apart, with Mercury to the north of the much brighter Venus. During this time Venus will be shining very brightly at -4 magnitude, while the much dimmer Mercury will still be easy to spot at 2nd magnitude.

The highlight of this apparition will be April 15th, when a thin crescent Moon, just 3% illuminated, will join the pair to make a lovely trio in the sunset glow.

Note- Unless otherwise noted times and positions are shown for the island of Hawai'i using Hawaiian Standard Time, 20°N latitude, 155°W longitude, for other locations most events listed will also be visible, but times and positions will vary, check a local reference or use a planetarium program to verify event details for your location

Posted by Andrew Cooper in Conjunctions & Occultations, Planets at 01:00 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

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If you're living in Northern latitudes the August evening apparition will be less visible (lower in the sky) than the march/april apparition, due to the angle of the Ecliptica to the horizont. So your information on this subject is incorrect or incomplete...
Good Luck with your site, mr Cooper

#1 JCJLF on 2010-04-09 10:18 (Reply)

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All text, photographic and drawn material is the original work of myself unless otherwise noted, Andrew Cooper, all rights reserved. Copyright 1996 to 2009. I will often grant permission for non-profit and educational use of my work upon written request.

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All text, photographic and drawn material is the original work of myself unless otherwise noted, Andrew Cooper, all rights reserved. Copyright 1996 to 2010. I will often grant permission for non-profit and educational use of my work upon written request.

Mercury in the Sunset

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Mercury in the Sunset

Thursday, March 18. 2010

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