Planet Mercury on view at dusk

[nytecam]

Elusive planet Mercury on view at dusk this evening [Jan 5] low in the SW for the next week with brilliant Venus much higher to the SSW Mercury obvious in binoculars as the only 'star' this low in SW and may be glimpsed with naked-eye in very good conditions Good luck!

[nytecam]

Just a few more seconds literally and Mercury would have vanished into trees - you can see the movement over 60s in shots below

[Phoebe]

These are great shots Nytecam, I am so enjoying looking at them and learning too! I have been looking out at night to try to idendify some of the stars it can be addictive - I love it! lol Thank you and keep them coming!

[natureguy]

Thanks for the info Nytecam I love looking out for these kinds of things, without your posts I'd never know what to look out for and when.

[seamusagleann]

seen it last night!! clear skys -4c ,low in the sw it was spectacular!! hoping for the same tonight!

[nytecam]

Thanks for your interest - here's Mercury and Venus from last night Jan 9 at dusk through my 30cm SCT + compact cam in movie mode handheld to eyepiece. Sharp frames extracted for these mosaics.



Venus close to dicotomy [half phase = 50%] and at greatest apparent distance in degrees from the sun eg eastern elongation. Mercury estimated as ~35% phase [=crescent] and thus past greatest eastern eleongation and moving back to the right towards the sun. The false red/blue prismatic colour is caused by the earth's atmosphere refracting the planet's light especially when low in the sky like Mercury above rooftops.

Mercury and Venus orbit the sun inside the earth's orbit so never get too far from the sun, are unually seen in twilight and the only two planets that show distinct phases like our moon

Hope its of interest.

[nytecam]

Beautiful deep blue sky at dusk last night but in the last seven day since last pic Mercury has moved back towards the sun and was lost to view. Venus is also moving back towards the sun but much more slowly but at its brightest as a crescent phase in a week or so.

Inset in pic is Venus through my telescope showing it phase

[Ruth Daniel]

More super images.....thanks Nytecam!

[sunnydale]

I'm quite embarrassed to ask....but what is the star/planet I keep seeing quite low down in the sky, sort of to the West (I live in Bakewell).
It's very bright, looks bigger than regular stars and it's the first thing to start shining in the evening! Is it Mercury?

Sorry if you've already mentioned this to us nytecam!

[cutecoot]

Also, I was wondering whether it would it have been visible over xmas? When I was staying down in Sussex, went out for evening walks on a couple of days and saw a very bright planet .. I happened to suggest it might be mercury, but that was just a wild guess! Well, it was more saying that it was a possibility, (either that or venus or jupiter!), but that mercury isn't shown on my planesphere because it moves too quick (plus I didn't have it with me at the time either - obviously, as not something I had thought of packing so was completely 'in the dark', as it were )