The Night Sky Guy

Gotcha Lil’ Mercury!

I actually braved the crazy cold weather in Montreal to catch Mercury on film. Caught both the Moon and the little planet super low to the horizon! Took this photo at 5 pm with 1.5 second exposure using a Canon TX-1.  If you can, get out side and check out the most elusive of all classical naked-eye planets for yourself!

Crescent Moon and Mercury Friday night in the western sky

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Moon Matchup at Dusk

Moon points to Mercury Friday at dusk; click image to enlarge

Since ancient times astronomers have known of five planets that are visible to the unaided eye. Four of them are fairly easy targets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) even for newbies to find in the sky, but  little ole Mercury can be quite a challenge most of the time. That’s because it is so close to the Sun the innermost planet is lost in its glare. 

But tomorrow at dusk Mercury will be at its greatest elongation – about as far away from the Sun in the sky it can get – about 20 degrees, making it easier to track down. As added help the Moon will act as a great guidepost to finding Mercury too, being only 1.4 degrees south of the faint planet.  Best time to look for the pair is at your local dusk tomorrow, looking towards the low southwest horizon. The razor thin crescent moon should be your first target and then once you have found it, scan the sky about 3 full Moon disk to the lower right to find the faint star-like Mercury. Binoculars will really help in spotting the planet but it should clearly pop into view if you are looking in the right place in the sky.  BTW – if it’s mind-numbing cold where you are – like here in Montreal (- 19) then you can try catching the show looking through your home window – both objects should be bright enough to see – only remember you really need a clear line of sight towards the SW horizon. If you get clouded out friday Mercury will still be well placed for a few days thereafter.Good luck planet hunting!

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Worlds Gather in the Morning Sky

Thursday at, Saturn dawn

If you can wake up before sunrise tomorrow (Friday) morning then look towards the low eastern horizon to see a clustering of planets and the Moon. Use the thin waning crescent Moon as a guidepost to help find three planets, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn. Easiest to spot will be Venus, also known as the ‘morning star’ – it is the brightest of the three star-like planets. The goddess of love will be located just to the upper left of the Moon. Dimmer Saturn will be to the upper right of Venus.

Draw an imaginary line down through these planets, towards the horizon and you will meet up with much fainter Mercury. While the planets will be visible with just the unaided eye, binoculars will help in initially spotting Mercury which is never far from the glare of the rising Sun.

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New Weather Network Episode

Check out this week’s new Night Sky show episode taped this Friday.

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Mercury in Morning Spotlight

Saturday morning; Click to Enlarge

Check out the innermost planet in the solar system with the unaided eye as it rises to its best morning showing for 2009. Little Mercury will be at its greatest elongation – or farthest away from the Sun it can get from our vantage point. This means that the planet will be the easiest to spot, especially for casual skywatchers because it will be higher up in the eastern sky, away from the glare of the rising Sun. Mercury is quite a tricky target to obseve, especially for beginner stargazers because it is never far away from the Sun. It is also a small planet, only one-and-a-half times larger than our own moon and orbits our star in just 3 months.

If you face towards the eastern sky at dawn over the course of the next week, you get a three-for-one planetary deal with Venus,  Mercury and Saturn. The three planets will actually line up diagonally in the sky this weekend. Venus will be the brightest and highest up the sky of the trio and so the easiest to spot.  

Oct.8; click to enlarge

By Tuesday, October 6th Mercury will officially reach greatest elongation west at 18 degrees- meaning it will be about 36 full moon disks away from the Sun in the sky. This elongation for Mercury is not the best ever – it can be as much as 27 degrees. The next time this happens is the evening of August 7, 2010 when it will be 27.4 degrees.

Not to be missed, on Thursday, October 8th, (image left) Mercury will have a spectacularly close conjunction with planet Saturn . The pair will only be 0.3 degrees apart – that is about the same width as the quarter Moon in the sky. Of course the two planets are much farther apart in space – about 1.4 billion km to be exact. Binoculars or telescopes, will show off the pair even better revealing both worlds as disks with Saturn presenting its razor thin rings.

Editor’s Note: Want to get an idea of the major stargazing highlights in store for October? Then check out the newest video diary feature you will find on my Sky Tonight page, courtesy of folks at NASA.  So stop by at the beginning of every month for the latest editions. Also don’t forget that at the top of the same Sky Tonight page, right above the video, you will find a brief calendar highlighting what’s happening in the skies just in the upcoming few days. A great way to plan your skywatching sessions.

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Seeing the Previously Unseen

Click image to Enlarge

Yesterday, as the MESSENGER spacecraft approached Mercury for the mission’s third flyby of the Solar System’s innermost planet, it captured this striking view  (image on right). This image shows portions of Mercury’s surface that had remained unseen by spacecraft even after the three flybys by Mariner 10 in 1974-75 and MESSENGER’s two earlier flybys in 2008. In this image, just returned to Earth early this morning, the newly imaged terrain is located in a wide vertical strip near the limb of the planet (on the left side of Mercury’s partially sunlit disk). This image is just one of 11 taken through the camera’s narrow-band color filters, and this set of images will be used to examine color differences on Mercury’s surface and to learn about the evolution of crustal rocks on the planet.

In this image below, Mercury’s northern horizon cuts a crisp line against the blackness of space. The surface in the lower right corner of the image is near Mercury’s terminator, the line between the light dayside and dark night side of the planet. Looking toward the horizon, smooth plains extend for large distances, similar to volcanic plains seen nearby during MESSENGER’s second flyby of Mercury. Members of the MESSENGER Science Team are gathered today at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, discussing these high-resolution images in detail.

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-Announcement and photos courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

 For more info on MESSENGER probe visit the official mission website.

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David and Goliath Meet Tonight

While Saturn is the second largest world in our solar system, Mercury is the smallest planet, making for an odd pair indeed. If you have clear skies towards the very low western horizon just after sunset then you can catch sight of two extreme planets in one view. 

The Lord of the Rings, Saturn,  will be located only 3 degrees apart - 6 Moon disks – from the innermost planet, Mercury. 

Try using a pair of binoculars to hunt them down in the glare of the sunset. But be quick because the pair will sink VERY quickly – within an hour.

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Hunt for Sunset Mercury this Weekend

click to enlarge

Up for a skywatching challenge the next few evenings? Try to spot little Mercury hanging super low in the western horizon. The innermost planet will only be 9 degrees or so above the western horizon just after sunset. That is about equal to your fists width at arms length. Luckily faint star-like Mercury will be easier to find thanks to the nearby, much brighter star Regulus – lead member of the constellation Leo. Friday night the pair will be separated by only 3 degrees – equal to about 6 full Moon disks apart with Mercury to the right of Regulus. But by Sunday evening the pair has its closest encounter with faint Mercury sitting just above Regulus – only a half degree apart – equal to only one full Moon disk apart! A very cool sight – don’t miss it. If you have never seen this tiny planet, Regulus will act as a great guidepost in tracking down your target. Remember to be patient in finding Mercury – it is considered the most difficult of all the five classical naked-eye planets to see in the sky. Tip – find a viewing location that is clear of any obstruction of the western horizon and also binoculars will help a lot in spotting it in the dusk’s glare. As an added bonus to the far upper left of the pair, will be the much brighter planet Lord of the Rings, Saturn. Good luck with your planetary hunt!

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Mercury and Venus at their Best Now

click to enlarge

If you get a chance to get up early this week you’ll get the privilege of seeing the  two innermost planets in the solar system at their easiest and brightest to spot in our skies. Look towards the low eastern horizon and the first to catch your eye will be the brightest star-like object in the morning – planet Venus. To its lower left is elusive Mercury. This little guy is much more of a challenge because it never moves very far from the glare of the Sun. In fact both Venus and Mercury are sometimes known as the Morning Star or Evening Star because their orbits hug the Sun so tightly, they are always hanging around the Sun at sunrise or sunset. This also means that that you have a limited window of opportunity to see them in the morning because they rise only an hour or so before the Sun. After which you will probably lose sight of Mercury  at first, because it is the fainter of the two, and then Venus later in the morning. If you have a small telescope lying around then take a peek at these little worlds. They will both look like miniature versions of the quarter Moon (see skychart above). This phase appearance is caused by the alignment of the planets, in relation to both the Sun and Earth.

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And if you are wondering, Venus lies in the constellation Aries, the ram, while Mercury is in Taurus, the bull.The constellations themselves however will be washed out by the dawn. to see their member stars you will need a binocular. As a side challenge try and see how long you can keep sight of Venus after the Sun rises. Binoculars will help you track it, but for fun see if you can follow Venus well into the morning. Venus is bright enough to shine through the blue skies, but you have to know exactly where to look, otherwise its pinpoint of light is invisible.

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