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This evening brilliant Venus and Mercury continue their planetary display in the western sky, Mercury reaches its greatest separation (elongation) from the sun tomorrow evening. Both planets are emerging from their solar superior conjunctions. After it reaches its greatest elongation, Mercury quickly returns to the sun’s glare and moves into the morning sky.
Venus is in the sky until October.
On March 18, Mercury passes Venus again as the waxing crescent moon joins the planetary pair in the western sky.
This evening Mercury is 4 degrees to the upper right of Venus.
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