Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos CasadoExplanation: 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
after sunset. If leading the Sun,
Mercurywill 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 manipulation 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. Currently, Mercury is
visible in the western skyafter sunset, but will disappear in the Sun’s glare after a few days.
