Mercury low in the morning

Event Date: April 26th

Time: 6:00 AM

Brief

  Here is a Mercury position update.  I mentioned last week that as it begins to separate itself from the Sun, it moves far enough south that it remains engulfed in the Sun's glare for the first two or three weeks.  Whereas southern hemisphere viewers see Mercury as well as they will all year in the morning sky, northern hemisphere viewers need to be close enough to the equator to see it easily before greatest elongation.
   I will show its current position this morning, as it continues to gradually brighten in apparent magnitude.  It is currently +0.1 this morning.

Detailed

   Although just past greatest elongation at 26º that puts Mercury far enough south of the Sun that it is only rising 56 minutes before the Sun.  This may sound like alot, until we remember that at this time of year, morning twilight time has increased dramatically over the last two months--by several minutes.  As a result, as soon as Mercury escapes atmospheric pollution and high enough, the Sun's lighting of the sky washes it out.  Binoculars can help find it easily and of course, a telescope while not too light out.  Mercury has been waxing from small crescent shape to gibbous, having passed dichotomy about a week ago, at 50% lit.  Since Mercury is further away and much smaller than Venus, it requires a high enough magnification to observe the dichotomy.  I will show the planet magnified here, as it makes that "swing around" in its orbit, heading to the Sun's far side and superior conjunction in a few weeks.  As it reaches that, it will start to brighten slightly faster.  At the listed time, Mercury is 6º in altitude.

*click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.