© 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 Nov–Dec 2019 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag -0.4.

From San Diego , this apparition will be well placed but tricky to observe, reaching a peak altitude of 18° above the horizon at sunrise on 28 Nov 2019.

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Nov–Dec 2019 morning apparition of Mercury

11 Nov 2019 – Mercury at inferior solar conjunction
25 Nov 2019 – Mercury at dichotomy
27 Nov 2019 – Mercury at highest altitude in morning sky
28 Nov 2019 – Mercury at greatest elongation west
10 Jan 2020 – Mercury at superior solar conjunction

The table below lists the altitude of Mercury at sunrise over the course of the apparition. All times are given in San Diego local time.

Date Sun
rises at
Mercury
rises at
Altitude
at sunrise
Direction
at sunrise
Mag Phase
16 Nov 201906:1705:26south-east2.39%
19 Nov 201906:1905:0514°south-east0.822%
22 Nov 201906:2204:5317°south-east-0.036%
25 Nov 201906:2504:4818°south-east-0.450%
28 Nov 201906:2804:4918°south-east-0.661%
01 Dec 201906:3004:5318°south-east-0.670%
04 Dec 201906:3304:5917°south-east-0.677%
07 Dec 201906:3505:0816°south-east-0.682%
10 Dec 201906:3705:1714°south-east-0.687%
13 Dec 201906:3905:2713°south-east-0.690%
16 Dec 201906:4105:3711°south-east-0.692%
19 Dec 201906:4305:47south-east-0.694%
22 Dec 201906:4505:57south-east-0.696%
25 Dec 201906:4606:08south-east-0.797%

Mercury will brighten rapidly at the start of its morning apparition as it emerges from inferior conjunction. Prior to its apparition, it passed between the Earth and Sun, at which time it had its unilluminated side turned towards the Earth and so appeared as a thin, barely illuminated crescent. As the apparition proceeds, this crescent waxes and becomes gibbous.

Since Mercury can only ever be observed in twilight, it is particularly difficult to find when it is in a thin crescent phase. Thus, it will be significantly easier to see in the days after it reaches its highest point in the sky – when it will show a gibbous phase – than in the days beforehand.

Altitude of Mercury at sunrise

A graph of the phase of Mercury is available here.

Apparitions of Mercury

23 Jun 2019 – Evening apparition
09 Aug 2019 – Morning apparition
19 Oct 2019 – Evening apparition
28 Nov 2019 – Morning apparition
10 Feb 2020 – Evening apparition
23 Mar 2020 – Morning apparition
04 Jun 2020 – Evening 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 14h45m30s 13°23'S Libra 7.2"
Sun 16h02m 20°40'S Scorpius 32'24"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 25 Nov 2019

The sky on 25 November 2019
Sunrise
06:25
Sunset
16:43
Twilight ends
18:09
Twilight begins
04:58

28-day old moon
Waning Crescent

0%

28 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 04:50 10:17 15:45
Venus 08:33 13:28 18:22
Moon 05:15 10:52 16:23
Mars 04:08 09:39 15:09
Jupiter 08:23 13:22 18:21
Saturn 09:42 14:44 19:46
All times shown in PST.

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 Nov 2019  –  Transit of Mercury
27 Nov 2019  –  Mercury at highest altitude in morning sky
28 Nov 2019  –  Mercury at greatest elongation west
10 Feb 2020  –  Mercury at greatest elongation east

Image credit

© NASA/JPL/MESSENGER

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