Mercury at greatest elongation east
Thursday 12th Jul 201803:00
Across much of the world Mercury will be well placed for observation in the evening sky, shining at mag 0.6.
From the UK, however, it will not be observable – it will reach its highest point in the sky during daytime and will be no higher than 5° above the horizon at dusk.
Mercury in coming weeks
Over coming weeks, the distance between Mercury and the Sun will decrease each night, and it will gradually sink back into the Sun’s glare, as the table below indicates (all times given in London local time).
Date | Sun sets at |
Mercury sets at |
Altitude of Mercury at sunset |
Direction of Mercury at sunset |
05 Jul 2018 | 21:14 | 22:37 | 11° | west |
12 Jul 2018 | 21:10 | 22:19 | 9° | west |
19 Jul 2018 | 21:03 | 21:52 | 6° | west |
26 Jul 2018 | 20:54 | 21:18 | 3° | west |
02 Aug 2018 | 20:43 | 20:38 | -1° | west |
09 Aug 2018 | 20:31 | 19:59 | -5° | north-west |
16 Aug 2018 | 20:18 | 19:30 | -6° | north-west |
23 Aug 2018 | 20:04 | 19:18 | -6° | north-west |
30 Aug 2018 | 19:49 | 19:18 | -5° | north-west |
06 Sep 2018 | 19:33 | 19:20 | -2° | north-west |
13 Sep 2018 | 19:17 | 19:18 | 0° | west |