Update: March 18, 2018
Venus enters the evening sky early in 2018, setting later each night. By March 1 Venus sets about 100 minutes after sunset, although before the end of twilight. Mercury has its best evening appearance with its greatest elongation on March 15. On March 18, Mercury passes about 4 degrees from Venus with the moon 4 degrees beyond Venus. The moon is just 35 hours past its new phase.
After the conjunction, Venus continues to set later; by the end of the March, it sets after twilight ends. Mercury dashes back into the sun’s glare toward its inferior conjunction on April 1, reappearing in a difficult-to-see apparition in the morning sky.
The articles that follow provide details about the planets visible without optical assistance (binoculars or telescope):
- Chart and Image Collection
- 2018: The Morning Sky
- 2018: The Evening Sky
- 2018, January 7: Jupiter-Mars Conjunction
- 2018, February 10: Mars-Antares Conjunction
- 2018, March 18: Venus, Mercury and the Moon
- 2018, April 2: Saturn-Mars Conjunction
- 2018: Mercury in the Morning Sky
- 2018: Mercury in the Evening Sky
- 2018: Five Planets Visible at Once
- 2018: Venus the Evening Star
- 2017-2019: Mars Observing Year with a Perihelic Opposition, July 27, 2018
- 2018: Mars Perihelic Opposition
- 2017-2018: Jupiter’s Year in the Claws of the Scorpion, A Triple Conjunction
- 2018: Three Planets at Opposition in 79 days
- 2018: Saturn with the Teapot