{"id":628161,"date":"2026-10-12T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T09:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628161\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T09:54:09","slug":"the-sky-today-on-monday-october-12-mercury-at-greatest-elongation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628161\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Monday, October 12: Mercury at greatest elongation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe planet Mercury stands 25\u00b0 east of the Sun. View the solar system\u2019s smallest planet, along with the crescent Moon, in the evening sky.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1217\" height=\"629\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ASY-SM1026_07.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"The sky on October 12, 2026, 20 minutes after sunset, looking southwest\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAlthough Mercury is only briefly visible in the evenings, try on Oct. 12, when it is near the delicate crescent Moon. Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/the-sky-this-week\/the-sky-this-week-from-october-9-to-16-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">October 11: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-sunday-october-11-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mars meets the Beehive<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Mercury reaches its greatest eastern elongation from the Sun at 6 A.M. EDT today, standing 25\u00b0 from our star. The Moon then passes 2\u00b0 south of Mercury at 4 P.M. EDT. Both are now in Libra.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By evening, our satellite sits to the lower left of bright Mercury, and both are visible for a short time in the west after sunset. Mercury shines at magnitude 0.0 and should pop out quickly in the twilight \u2014 which is fortunate, as it\u2019s just 4.5\u00b0 high 20 minutes after sunset. Look for it some 3.5\u00b0 to the upper right (north) of the delicate waxing crescent Moon, now some 6% lit. You might have good luck spotting the planet in binoculars or a finder scope before you can see it with your eyes \u2014 just make sure not to pull out any optical aid until at least several minutes after the Sun has disappeared below the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through a telescope, Mercury spans 7\u201d and appears 60% lit. The planet sets shortly after 7 P.M. local daylight time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Sunrise: 7:08 A.M. <br \/>Sunset: 6:25 P.M. <br \/>Moonrise: 9:20 A.M. <br \/>Moonset: 7:08 P.M. <br \/>Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (6%) <br \/>*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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List The planet Mercury stands 25\u00b0 east of the Sun. View the solar system\u2019s smallest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,12839,147,62517],"class_list":["post-628161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}