Starwatch: Mercury, the planet that plays hard to spot

Starwatch chart Monday 18 February 2019 Mercury

The inner planet Mercury is notoriously difficult to see with the naked eye. It follows a tight path around the sun, completing a full orbit every 88 days. That means it never strays out of the twilight sky. This week offers about as good an opportunity as it ever gets to see the planet in the evening sky. To begin your vigil, find somewhere with a clear western horizon and start searching low down just after sunset. The chart shows the view in the western sky at 18:00 GMT on 22 February. Mercury will appear out of the glare as a tiny bright spot. As the darkness sets in, so the planet will appear to brighten. However, it also begins to set, so the race is on to spot it before it follows the sun beneath the horizon. A pair of binoculars could be useful in your search but do not look through them until the sun has disappeared below the horizon. The days following 22 February will also be good times to look. As an added bonus on these nights, Mars will also be visible higher in the sky. And you can watch the stars come out one by one as the sky darkens.