Mercury's improving apparition--somewhat!

Event Date: May 5th
Time: 5:45 AM

Brief

   Feliz Cinco de Mayo! 
As for astronomy, let's take another look at Mercury low in the east, as it starts to catch up with the Sun in celestial longitude.  The result of this, means that the declination difference between the two will decrease.  At greatest elongation, Mercury had fallen far enough south of the Sun, that it was rising only a short time before the Sun.  With the spring Sun's glare lasting longer in the morning it was nearly impossible to see Mercury without optical aid.  This first image shows a zoom-out of Mercury in orbit, along with celestial guidelines.  During May and November, we are looking almost directly towards the plane of the orbit, hence no "loop" appearance.

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Detailed

Now that Mercury is now slowly approaching the Sun again after aphelion and we are seeing a little more lit portion of Mercury, it is starting to brighten.  Between now and just before it becomes hard to see before superior conjunction, it will brighten nicely, with the gap between it and the Sun rising increasing.  The only problem of course, will be that we will be close to the Summer solstice, and trying to catch Mercury while still dark enough will mean trying to look for it between 5:00 and 5:30 AM, depending on one's time zone.  The further south viewers are to the equator, the easier Mercury will be to spot in dark enough-yet-twilight skies.
   This second image is a zoom-in of the planet, showing it waxing as a gibbous, although shrinking in size from our point of view.  At magnitude -0.2, albeit still south of the Sun, try to see it with the eye alone, although being high enough to see above any obstruction would be a must.

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