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Ephemeris: 08/19/2025 – Mercury makes its morning appearance

August 19, 2025 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, August 19th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 51 minutes, setting at 8:41, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:51. The Moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:25 tomorrow morning.

The tiny planet Mercury is making an appearance in the morning sky now. For the next week or so it will be visible around 6 AM. At least it’s time to start looking for it. Once found, it might be followed for another 20 minutes or so. This morning Mercury was at its greatest angular separation or elongation from the Sun of 18.6°. We have two periods where Mercury is easier to spot: on late winter and early spring evenings, and in the morning sky in late summer and early autumn. Of course Mercury must be at the proper elongation point at the time. Mercury is the smallest of the planets, being only 50% larger in diameter than our moon. In closeup, it looks much like our Moon, gray and cratered.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

The planets Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter along with the Moon as they would appear tomorrow morning August 20th at 6:00 AM in the eastern sky
The planets Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter along with the Moon as they would appear tomorrow morning August 20th at 6:00 AM in the eastern sky. Also for Northern Michigan observers, at exactly 6:00 AM, the International Space Station will be cruising past these planets as it moves to set in the east-northeast. Created using Stellarium.
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Mercury, Naked-eye planets Tags: