How to View Mercury

Mercury is known to some as the ‘elusive planet’ because it’s more difficult to see than the others. In pre-Christian days, Mercury had two names. It was called Mercury in the evening sky and Apollo in the morning sky. It was not known that these two were one planet until Pythagoras, who lived in the fifth century, realized it.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Mercury is known to some as the ‘elusive planet’ because it’s more difficult to see than the others. In pre-Christian days, Mercury had two names. It was called Mercury in the evening sky and Apollo in the morning sky. It was not known that these two were one planet until Pythagoras, who lived in the fifth century, realized it.
2. Know Mercury's composition. Mercury is composed of 70% iron, with some nickel and 30% silicate material It's the closest planet to the sun and it reaches temperature extremes from -183 to 467 degrees. Like earth, the planet has a mantle, crust and core. The mantle and crust are rocky and covered in fine soil. Mercury's huge iron core constitutes about 75% of the planet. It's surface is rough cratered like our moon.
3. See how Mercury’s orbit works. Mercury rotates three times for every two 58.6 day orbits around the sun. At its farthest point, Mercury is 43 million miles away from the sun but at its closest, it’s a little less than 29 million miles away. Mercury’s orbit is an ellipse (an oval shaped path) but it is not regular. It’s perihelion (the point where it is closest to the sun) is not always the same point. Mercury’ perihelion moves slowly along with the rotation of the planet.
4. Know Mercury’s distinctiveness. If someone were to stand on Mercury he or she would witness a sight found nowhere else in the universe. For four days before its perihelion to four days after, the sun would look like it suddenly reversed direction and then turned back to its original direction. If this was timed so that the sun rose at the time of the perihelion, the observer would watch the sun rise in the east and stop for a moment and then drop back beneath the horizon. In a few seconds, the sun would appear to rise for a second time.
5. Be aware of the difficulties in seeing Mercury: it’s the most complicated of all the planets to observe. Due to its closeness to the sun, it can only be seen for a short time either just before sunrise or in the early night. Mercury is the only planet that the Hubble Space Telescope cannot observe because its delicate instruments cannot stand the sun's heat from that distance.
6. Know where Mercury is best observed from. It’s far easier to see Mercury from the southern hemisphere of the earth because it rises in the sky several hours before sunrise and several hours after sundown there. In the northern hemisphere, Mercury never gets above the horizon of the sky when it’s dark. You can see Mercury, as well as most of the other planets, when there is a solar eclipse (when the moon passes between the earth and the sun) and the view of the sun in completely of partially obscured.
7. Understand when it's best to observe Mercury. When Mercury is at a gibbous phase (between first quarter and half and between half and last quarter) there is a greater area that’s illuminated, making it more visible from earth.
8. Remember that Mercury is the smallest planet and that it's closest to the sun. It's called the elusive planet because it's the most difficult planet to view.