The inner planet Mercury is currently at its greatest eastern elongation, meaning that it is relatively high in the evening sky. This makes it as easy as it is ever going to be to spot the planet.
Although the moment of greatest elongation occurred on 7 January, the small rocky planet hasn’t yet dropped in the night sky, so the view is still good on Monday night. The chart shows the view looking south-west from London at 1700GMT on 10 January, but you should start looking 15 minutes earlier, because the longer you delay, the lower the elusive planet sinks towards the horizon.
A good way to orient yourself is to find Jupiter first – it is conspicuously bright in the sky at present. Then scan diagonally downwards. Mercury is close to Saturn in the sky, and the three planets will make a more or less straight line. Saturn will be fainter than Mercury, so you may spot Mercury first. From Sydney, Australia look to the west at around 2030AEDT. Mercury will be about seven and a half degrees above the horizon, which is a degree or so higher than it will appear from London. For reference, the full moon is half a degree wide.
