© NASA/JPL/MESSENGER

Mercury at dichotomy

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Inner Planets feed

Objects: Mercury
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Mercury will reach half phase in its Apr–May 1996 evening apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -0.3.

From San Diego , this apparition will be well placed but tricky to observe, reaching a peak altitude of 18° above the horizon at sunset on 23 Apr 1996.

Begin typing the name of a town near to you, and then select the town from the list of options which appear below.

Apr–May 1996 evening apparition of Mercury

27 Mar 1996 – Mercury at superior solar conjunction
19 Apr 1996 – Mercury at dichotomy
21 Apr 1996 – Mercury at highest altitude in evening sky
22 Apr 1996 – Mercury at greatest elongation east
14 May 1996 – Mercury at inferior solar conjunction

A graph of the phase of Mercury is available here.

Apparitions of Mercury

20 Oct 1995 – Morning apparition
02 Jan 1996 – Evening apparition
11 Feb 1996 – Morning apparition
22 Apr 1996 – Evening apparition
10 Jun 1996 – Morning apparition
21 Aug 1996 – Evening apparition
02 Oct 1996 – Morning apparition

Observing Mercury

Mercury's orbit lies closer to the Sun than the Earth's, meaning that it always appears close to the Sun and is lost in the Sun's glare much of the time.

It is observable for only a few weeks each time it reaches greatest separation from the Sun – moments referred to as greatest elongation. These apparitions repeat roughly once every 3–4 months.

Mercury's phase

Mercury's phase varies depending on its position relative to the Earth. When it passes between the Earth and Sun, for example, the side that is turned towards the Earth is entirely unilluminated, like a new moon.

Conversely, when it lies opposite to the Earth in its orbit, passing almost behind the Sun, it appears fully illuminated, like a full moon. However, at this time it is also at its most distant from the Earth, so it is actually fainter than at other times.

Mercury shows an intermediate half phase – called dichotomy – at roughly the same moment that it appears furthest from the Sun, at greatest elongation. The exact times of the two events may differ by a few days, only because Mercury's orbit is not quite perfectly aligned with the ecliptic.

Mercury's position

The coordinates of Mercury when it reaches dichotomy will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
Mercury 03h05m30s 20°01'N Aries 7.1"
Sun 01h51m 11°28'N Aries 31'50"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 28 Mar 2024

The sky on 28 March 2024
Sunrise
06:39
Sunset
19:05
Twilight ends
20:29
Twilight begins
05:15

18-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

85%

18 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 07:16 13:52 20:29
Venus 05:59 11:49 17:39
Moon 21:33 02:59 08:18
Mars 05:14 10:48 16:21
Jupiter 08:32 15:17 22:02
Saturn 05:40 11:21 17:02
All times shown in PDT.

Warning

Never attempt to point a pair of binoculars or a telescope at an object close to the Sun. Doing so may result in immediate and permanent blindness.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

11 Feb 1996  –  Mercury at greatest elongation west
22 Apr 1996  –  Mercury at highest altitude in evening sky
22 Apr 1996  –  Mercury at greatest elongation east
10 Jun 1996  –  Mercury at greatest elongation west

Image credit

© NASA/JPL/MESSENGER

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32.72°N
117.16°W
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