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Brilliant Venus shines again from the western sky this evening during twilight. It is emerging from its solar superior conjunction and is in the sky for most of the year.
Speedy Mercury is now past its greatest elongation and begins setting earlier each evening. It passes between Earth and Sun on April 1. Its departure occurs quickly during the next two weeks. Also notice that Mercury’s brightness is fading as well. This evening Mercury appears 3.9 degrees to the upper right of Venus. Tomorrow evening the moon joins the view.
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