Tag Archives: Mercury

ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR FEBRUARY 2012

Feb 3: Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd is just 36’ S-SW of M92 in the Eastern sky before dawn
Feb 7: Mercury Superior Conjunction
Feb 8: Full Moon
Feb 8: The Full within 6 Degrees of Regulus.
Feb 13: A Waning Gibbous Moon forms triangle with Saturn and Spica after midnight.
Feb 14: Last Quarter Moon
Feb 16: A Crescent Moon is 5.5 degrees E-NE of Antares.
Feb 20: Neptune Conjunction
Feb 22: New Moon
Feb 25: A Crescent Moon is just 4.5 degrees from Venus in the Western evening sky shortly after sunset.
Feb 26: A Crescent Moon poses in the middle of two bright planets Jupiter and Venus in the Western evening sky shortly after sunset.
Feb 27: A Crescent Moon (5.2 days old) within 6 degrees of Jupiter in the West shortly after sunset

ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR DECEMBER 2011

Dec 2: Mars Western Quadrature

Dec 4: Mercury Inferior Conjunction

Dec 6: Jupiter within 5 degrees of the Moon

Dec 10: Full Moon

Dec 10: A total lunar eclipse will take place on December 10, 2011. It will be visible from all of Asia and Australia, seen as rising over Eastern Europe, and setting over northwest North America. In the Philippines, the lunar eclipse is seen visible just after sunset.

Dec 13/14: The Geminids will peak and will likewise be completely obscured by an almost-full Moon in Gemini.

Dec 18: Last Quarter Moon

Dec 20: A Crescent Moon is just within 2.5 degrees from Spica

Dec 23: See the Crescent Moon (just 4% illuminated) just 3 degrees from Mercury, very low in the east at the time of dawn.

Dec 23: Uranus Eastern Quadrature

Dec 23: Mercury Greatest Elongation

 

Dec 24: New Moon

Dec 27: A 3 days old Crescent Moon within 6.5 degrees from Venus in the western sky shortly after sunset

Dec 29: Pluto Conjunction

PLANET ROUND UP_MARCH 2011

MARS: Mars is lost in the solar glare!

URANUS: Very low in West. The planet will be on conjunction on 21st March.

JUPITER: Getting low in the Western sky and will be paired with Mercury from March 12 to March 20.

SATURN: Rises around 9:30 pm at the month’s beginning and well placed in the sky at the time of midnight. The planet will show 19 arc seconds wide disc during March.

 

VENUS: The brightest planet will be just 1 degree from the Moon on the morning of 1st March.It will be nicely paired with the Crescent Moon on the morning of 1stMarch and will be just 10’ apart from Neptune on the morning of 27th March.

NEPTUNE: Will emerge from the eastern morning sky by March 8. It will be very close to brilliant Venus on 27th March.

MERCURY: Will climb up in the Western evening sky around 8-9 March. The inner-most planet will be just 21’ from Uranus on the evening of 9th March but very low near the Western horizon. The planet will be paired with Jupiter during mid-March and will be at Greatest Elongation on 23rd March.

ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR JANUARY 2011

January 2011 Sky Map

JAN 2:  A Waning Crescent Moon within 5 degrees of Antares at the time of dawn

JAN 3-4: Quadrantid Meteor Shower will peak

JAN 4: Partial Solar Eclipse

JAN 4: New Moon

JAN 7: Saturn Western Quadrature

JAN 10: Venus Greatest Western Elongation

venus and mercury will be on greatest elongation on 10th Jan

JAN 10: Mercury Greatest Western Elongation

JAN 12: First Quarter Moon

JAN 15: A Waxing Gibbous Moon (10.32 days old) within 2 degrees of Pleiades (M45).

JAN 20: Full Moon

JAN 21: A Waning gibbous Moon (16.86 days old) within 5.5 degrees of Regulus.

JAN 25: A Waning Gibbous (20.45 days old) Moon will be around 8.5 degrees from Saturn

JAN 26: Last Quarter Moon

JAN 26: The Moon within 6 degrees of Spica. Also the Moon, Spica and Saturn are aligned in a straight line.

JAN 29: A Waning Crescent Moon (24% illuminated) is just around 2 degrees N-NE of Antares.

JAN 30: A Waning Crescent Moon (16% illuminated) is just around 4 degrees NE of Venus.

V S/AASTRO

Mercury in Conjunction with the Moon

On 12th February 2010, just before sunrise, you will see something
fantastic at the eastern horizon. You will see Mercury very close to the
Moon. They will be in Conjunction.Conjunction is a term normally used in positional astronomy.It means that as seen from same place,say earth, two celestial bodies appear near one another in the sky.The event also known as appulse.Mercury is the 1st planet from the Sun and not so easy object to detect with the naked eyes since most of the time it hides itself in the twilight. On 12th the Moon phase is very close to the New Moon, so only a very thin crescent of the Moon will be visible.

Moon - Mercury Conjunction

As viewed from a particular place on the Earth, when two objects in the
sky appear very close to each other, then they are said to be in
conjunction with each other. Planetary conjunctions look very beautiful
when they are visible by naked eyes. Sometimes paths of two objects in
the sky can cross each other and they tend to appear at the same
location in the sky this is the special case of conjunction which is
called Occultation where eventually one object hides the other. Another
special case of Conjunction is Transition it happens when a smaller
object appears to pass over the bigger size object.

v s/AASTRO