Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Thursday, August 23rd. The Sun rises at 6:54. It’ll be up for 13 hours and 40 minutes, setting at 8:35. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 4:56 tomorrow morning. | The tiny and elusive planet Mercury is making an appearance in the morning sky now. On Sunday afternoon our time Mercury will at its greatest elongation or separation west of the Sun. So Sunday or Monday mornings are the very best time to spot it. Look to the east-northeast at a low horizon to spot it. It should be visible from about 6 a.m. to about 6:40 a.m. before twilight swamps it. There are no stars of comparable brightness near it. It’s seen against the dim stars of Cancer the crab. The bright stars Pollux and Castor of Gemini will appear a ways above it. It should be visible from now through next week. Today is the day of the mini-Moon, its smallest of the month at 252 thousand miles (406 thousand km) away.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The motion of Mercury from August 23 to September 1, 2018. For each day the magnitude of Mercury is given. Note that gets brighter over the period. That is the magnitudes get more negative. The is due to Mercury’s increasing phase, getting fuller as it moves around the Sun. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).