{"id":305933,"date":"2026-02-19T10:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/305933\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T10:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:34:06","slug":"mercury-at-greatest-eastern-elongation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/305933\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury at greatest eastern elongation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\tMercury reaches a position 18\u00b0 east of the Sun, offering a great view after sunset as the Moon stands near Neptune and Saturn.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAn hour after sunset, Venus has set but Mercury remains above the horizon, with the Moon and Saturn visible above it. Neptune, not visible to the naked eye, lies less than a degree north of Saturn and can be viewed with optical aid. Credit: Stellarium\/USGS\/Celestia\/Clementine\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n

February 18: The Moon meets Mercury<\/a><\/p>\n

Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation (18\u00b0) at 1 P.M. EST. You can catch the solar system\u2019s smallest planet in the evening sky, shining at magnitude \u20130.5 in the west. It stands 11\u00b0 high 30 minutes after sunset, about 8\u00b0 above brighter Venus, which is close to the horizon. A thin crescent Moon lies above Mercury as well, creating a lovely naked-eye trio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Moon passes 4\u00b0 north of Neptune and 5\u00b0 north of Saturn at 7 P.M. EST, as the two distant planets are still less than a degree apart in Pisces. Once the sky grows darker, 1st-magnitude Saturn should pop out against the background sky to the lower left of the Moon. It\u2019s the brightest point of light in this region, and the third-brightest light in the sky, after Venus and Mercury. Neptune, at magnitude 7.8, is not visible to the naked eye. Once full darkness falls, however, you can find the distant ice giant by centering binoculars or a telescope on Saturn, then glancing to the north. The planets are currently just 0.8\u00b0 apart.<\/p>\n

Sunrise:\u00a06:47 A.M.
Sunset:\u00a05:41 P.M.
Moonrise:\u00a07:47 A.M.
Moonset:\u00a08:22 P.M.
Moon Phase:\u00a0Waxing crescent (8%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Mercury reaches a position 18\u00b0 east of the Sun, offering a great view after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":{"0":"post-305933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-observing","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sky-tonight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}