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StarGazer
Each week most PBS stations air Star
Gazer with Jack Horkheimer, the world's first and only weekly TV series
on naked-eye astronomy. The images on this page illustrate the show for
the week of Monday,
May 22, 2000.
There Are Only Two Really Good Times This Year To See Mercury and Next Week Is One Of Them
Mercury is seldom visible because it never strays far from the sun, so it is usually above the horizon only during the day. This image is taken on June 3, and shows the orbit of Mercury around the sun. You can see that Mercury is about as far from the sun as it ever gets on this date, making it the best time to find Mercury in the sky.
A look at Mercury and the crescent moon on June 3, about 45 minutes after sunset. The bright stars Procyon and Capella are also visible in the twilight.
Mercury's position in the sky about 45 minutes after sunset through the months of May and June. You can see that Mercury is relatively high in the sky for about 10 days in early June, before rapidly heading back below the horizon as the month goes on.
