Mercury at inferior solar conjunction -

Mercury will pass very close
to the Sun in the sky as its orbit carries it between the Sun and Earth.

This occurs once in every synodic cycle of the planet
(116 days),
and marks the end of Mercury’s apparition in the evening sky and its transition to become a morning object over
the next few weeks.

At closest approach, Mercury will appear at a separation of
only 1°23′ from the Sun, making it totally
unobservable for several weeks while it is lost in the Sun’s glare.

Mercury will also pass perigee – the time when it is closest to the
Earth – at around the same time, since it will lie on exactly
the same side of the Sun as the Earth in the Solar System. It will move to
within a distance of

0.68 AU from the Earth, making it appear with its largest angular size. If it could
be observed, it would measure

9.9 arcsec
in diameter, whilst appearing completely unilluminated.

The position of Mercury at the moment it passes solar conjunction will be:

Object	Right Ascension	Declination	Constellation	Angular Size
Mercury	16h51m40s	21°06’S	Ophiuchus	9.9″
Sun	16h51m	22°29’S	Ophiuchus	32’27”

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky
on 5 Dec 2024

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.