Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, March 6th.  The sun will rise at 7:10.  It’ll be up for 11 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 6:37.   The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:18 tomorrow morning.

The planet Mercury, which is visible shortly after sunset, is the smallest planet and the one closest to the sun.  Its diameter of about 3,030 miles is 50 percent larger than the moon.  At first glance Mercury looks like the moon.  However to the spacecraft now orbiting Mercury, it appears as a much different place.  Mercury is very dense with a large iron core.  The moon in contrast is a lightweight.  There are no dark lava plains called seas on Mercury, as there are on the near face of the moon.  The largest impact basin on Mercury is the Caloris basin, some 650 miles in diameter.  At the antipodal point from the Caloris Basin, there is a patch of jumbled terrain actually called Weird Terrain where the impact forces were focused.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.