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May is Great for Mercury Watching
Sky/star gazing is a fun, family thing to do. Now that the weather is warming up, be sure to check out the nighttime sky before retiring in the evening. You may be delighted in what you see.
May is the perfect time to see the planet Mercury in the evening sky. All you need to do is look west-northwest through binoculars about an hour after sunset, you'll see a lovely tapestry of the Pleiades (a cluster of stars in the constellation of Taurus), Mercury, and the V-shaped Hyades cluster with the orange star Aldebaran woven low above the horizon.
On Tuesday night, May 6, the 1.5-day old crescent Moon will sit a couple of degrees above and slightly to Mercury’s right.
During the first three weeks of May, this reddish planet is easy to see with the naked eye, beginning the month brilliant, then gradually fading. However, its setting time improves to just under two hours after the Sun on the 14th, when the planet reaches greatest elongation, 22-degrees almost directly above the Sun's setting point, and is visible – albeit briefly – in a completely dark sky.
Some facts about Mercury:
- Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in our solar system. It orbits the Sun once every 88 days.
- Physically, Mercury is similar in appearance to the Moon. It is heavily cratered, and has no natural satellites or substantial atmosphere. It has a large iron core, which generates a magnetic field about 1 percent as strong as the Earth’s. Because of the large size of its core, it is an exceptionally dense planet.
- Surface temperatures on Mercury range from about -290° to 800° F.
- Before the 4th Century BC, Greek astronomers believed Mercury was two separate objects: one visible only at sunrise, which they called Apollo, and the other visible only at sunset, which they called Hermes. The English name for the planet comes from the Romans, who named it after the Roman god Mercury, which they equated with the Greek Hermes.