I just wanted to note that Mercury is beautifully visible a little after sunset now, and for a few more days. I have never actually seen Mercury before, with the naked eye or otherwise. In travelling through the atmosphere the light has picked up a beautiful, delicate rose-pink tinge.

I've seen Mercury hundreds of times, but this is the first time I have photographed it (having just begun my astrophotography career in January!).

Interestingly, it appears aligned with the street I live on, and is easily visible against the city lights of San Francisco. It's funny to contemplate photographing a sky object while pointing a telescope right past streetlights and waiting for buses to get out of the line of sight. But then, Mercury is lit at 6x the sunlight levels of the Sahara, and its tiny gibbous face easily outshines anything my urban street can offer.

Featureless in my 3" scope to be sure, but I magnified the pixels from its disk to produce an assessment of its color and produced something suitably lunar. I'm happy with that.

Space Weather News for Feb. 24, 2006

http://spaceweather.com

MERCURY AT ITS BEST: Tonight is the best night of the year to see Mercury. Step
outside at sunset and look west. Mercury is the bright pink "star" shining
through the glow of the setting sun. (If you miss the planet tonight, try again
tomorrow. Mercury will remain visible at sunset all weekend long.)

If you're lucky enough, Mercury will transit the sun on November 8-9, 2006. It's path across the sun is very similar to the 1882 transit of Venus, but with a much smalled disk. Start 19:14 UT (Nov. 8 2006) and end 00:15 (Nov. 9 2006). The West Coast of the US will get the full transit, which will be a partial consolation for getting none of the 2004 transit of Venus.

Here's a photo I took of the 2004 Venus transit for comparison!

Bob Shaw