Abstract
THE PLANET MERCURY.—An unusually good opportunity of observing the planet Mercury with the naked eye, or with an opera-glass, will be afforded about the middle of the present month. The planet will be at its greatest eastern elongation on May 16, when it will be 22° from the sun, and will remain above the horizon for two hours and a quarter after sunset. At this time the apparent diameter of the planet will be 8″, and about 0˙4 of the disc will be illuminated. On May 14, at 6 p.m., the planet will be in conjunction with the moon, Mercury being 2° 24′ to the south; at 9 p.m. on the same evening, the crescent of the two days' moon will be about 3° N.N.E. of the planet.
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Our Astronimical Column. Nature 54, 17–18 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/054017a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/054017a0