Mercury’s Morning Debut
Coming February 26th, to a sky near you, Mercury makes a (dimly) shining morning debut!
2021 brings exciting astronomical events, and Fly Science Star Shows brings you what you need to know about those events! We're starting 2021 by talking about our shyest, smallest planet: Mercury! On the mornings of February 26th through March 1st, Mercury will be at its highest point over our south-eastern horizon, which is the best time to spot this elusive planet.
Mercury -- being so small, so far away, and so close to the Sun -- isn’t an easy thing to spot. But every once in a while, when Mercury and Earth reach ideal points in their orbits, we manage to get a good glimpse of our solar system’s smallest planet.
Like the Earth, Mercury orbits the sun, but Mercury is much closer to the sun than Earth is. From our vantage point here on Earth, we see the solar system edge-on. So to us, we don't see Mercury make its whole journey around the sun-- we just see it get closer and closer to the Sun, disappear for a while (as it passes either behind or in front of the sun), and then pop-out the other side.
But the best time to view Mercury doesn't just depend on where it's at in its orbit around the sun--it also depends on Earth having good seats for the show. When Earth, Mercury, and the Sun form a right-triangle (with Mercury at the 90-degree corner) Mercury is considered to be at what’s called “Greatest Elongation”. It’s around the time of Greatest Elongation that Mercury is easiest to see, because it’s not being blocked or drowned-out by the sun’s light, it’s being illuminated by the sun, and it’s not too far away from Earth. But the day of Greatest Elongation isn’t always the best day to see Mercury-- we know the best time to see Mercury because of people accounting for other various factors and doing the complex calculations for us!
Stellarium’s simulation of the February 26th morning sky at 06:10
Stellarium’s simulation of the March 1st morning sky at 06:10
The best times to view Mercury in the coming days will be between 05:30am (when Mercury rises) to 06:30am (when the Sun rises) on the mornings of February 26th through March 1st, when it will reach upwards of 12-degrees above the horizon. (To visualize how high 12 degrees is above the horizon, hold your first at arms length in front of your face, with your thumb facing skyward and the bottom of your fist at the horizon. In that position, the top of your fist is about 10 degrees above the horizon.) Try to get out as close to 5:30 as possible, because as the sun gets closer to rising, our sky will get brighter and start to drown out the nighttime sky, including Mercury.
Escorting Mercury will be two brighter shining giants, Jupiter and Saturn. They will certainly outshine and draw the attention away from Mercury, making Mercury even easier to overlook. But since YOU now know what to look for, you can use Jupiter and Saturn to find Mercury. Mercury will be sitting between Jupiter and Saturn those mornings, dimly shining like the humble little chunk of rock it is!
Written By: James (The Fly Science Guy) Sanders
Edited By: Rebecca Dudek
