Object of the Month - Mercury

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Mercury is the forgotten naked eye planet because most people have never seen it. It’s one of the least explored worlds in our solar system but in the few times we have visited, we’ve found out that it’s not a place you'd want to live. We know it’s the closest planet to the sun and it orbits in 88 days while one rotation of the planet on its axis takes 59 days. That day would be quite uncomfortable though. At night the temperature plummets to below -150oC but during the day it can reach well over 400oC, which is hot enough to melt lead. There’s no atmosphere either – that got blown off by the fearsome solar winds, and without an atmosphere it has been constantly bombarded by meteors so its surface is heavily cratered.

Mercury - Image from NASA

Seeing Mercury is difficult, even though it shines brighter than most stars in the sky. Its proximity to the sun means that its light gets drowned out by the twilight glow but every so often it steps out far enough from our perspective that it can be observed quite easily – we call this its greatest elongation. There are two possible elongations and which you choose to try and observe depends on how much of a morning person you are. This month Mercury will be at its greatest eastern elongation which means it will be visible in the evening sky until around an hour after sunset. It’s a small window of opportunity, but it’s going to be your best chance of spotting the elusive planet.

To catch a glimpse, you’ll need to head out around sunset as close to the evening of February 12th as time and cloud will allow. The most important thing is to wait until the sun has gone down below the horizon; quite apart from it drowning out the light of Mercury, it’s extremely dangerous to look at the sun through binoculars, a telescope or frankly even the naked eye because you’ll fry your retina.

It usually takes a little while after sunset before it becomes visible because the twilight sky is still bright, especially on the western horizon. Search around where the sun has just gone down in the west and within around 15 – 30 minutes you should be able to see it, assuming the sky is clear. Its also best to get away from pollution as much as possible because any cloud or haze on the horizon will make it harder to see Mercury.

Through binoculars you might just about be able to see a phase. Both Mercury and Venus show clear phases and Mercury should be around half during February, but this will be clearer through a telescope.

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