Brilliant Venus and Mercury shine this evening during twilight. Mercury is approaching its greatest elongation from the sun; it is putting on its best evening display of the year. Tonight the two planets are 3.9 degrees apart. Venus is slowly moving into the evening sky. Mercury is nearing its greatest angular separation from the sun and then returns into the sun’s glare and jumps into the morning sky.
Venus is brightening as it moves higher in the sky and closer to our planet. This evening, Venus is 10 times brighter than Mercury.
The moon joins the scene next, when Mercury passes Venus again on March 18.
Continue to watch the planets in the evening western 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, 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