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Mercury exceptionally well placed for viewing late March

coylemj · 2017-03-26 16:12:16

Mercury is currently in the evening sky and will be at it's greatest angular separation (elongation) from the Sun on April 1st. This is an ideal time to spot Mercury as the plane of the Earth's orbit (the ecliptic) describes a steep angle to the western horizon at the time of the Spring Equinox meaning that angular…

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26-03-2017 5:12pm

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coylemj

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Mercury is currently in the evening sky and will be at it's greatest angular separation (elongation) from the Sun on April 1st.

This is an ideal time to spot Mercury as the plane of the Earth's orbit (the ecliptic) describes a steep angle to the western horizon at the time of the Spring Equinox meaning that angular separation from the sun translates into a decent elevation above the horizon so providing ideal conditions to view elusive Mercury and a young moon soon after sunset.

The 40 hour old Moon will be to the left of Mercury on Wed. March 29th, look out for them just after sunset which in Dublin will be at 19:55 local time (UTC+1).

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