Mercury's excellent evening apparition continues! In the next few days, Mercury will get a little further from brilliant Venus (moving more to it's lower right), and start to fade dramatically, so be sure to get a look at it soon. This shot was taken tonight with the Canon XSi, with a 4 second exposure. Click for a full-screen view.If you have a telescope, Mercury now displays a crescent phase as it's orbit takes it between us and the sun. Use Venus as your starting guide, looking to the lower right with your naked eye or binoculars as it gets dark enough to pop out. Happy hunting!
I pointed out Mercury to Brendan while we were at Sea World and drew a small number of other tourists who overheard me. It's just a point of light but it's always a treat to see it. Brendan is totally into reading about the solar system right now and has absorbed an incredible amount of information and understanding of concepts like gravity and density...even a bit of stellar evolution. Not bad for a five-year old.
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