This Christmas, Be Sure To Keep An Eye Out For Mercury’s Brilliant Display In The Sky
Bright Mercury will be visible in the sky on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), rising to its highest point above the horizon before sunset on Christmas day, and then gradually disappearing from view as the years 2022 and 2023 advance.
The nearest planet to the sun will be at its highest position in the sky throughout its ongoing winter evening appearance during the two days of Christmas, when it will be 12 degrees over the horizon, or slightly more than one fist’s breadth at arm’s length. It will be shining at a magnitude of -0.6 at this time, as predicted by In the Sky.
When an extrasolar object appears in Earth’s sky, this is known as an apparition. Depending on Mercury’s position relative to the sun, these apparitions may occur in the morning or evening sky.
Once the sun has set, you may get a glimpse of Mercury in the east since it rises and sets later than the sun. When it’s in the west, though, it rises before the sun and sets after sunset. From December 4th through January 5th, Mercury will be visible in the evening sky, moving to the east of the sun.
Furthermore, the greatest chance to travel the world is to get started right away. This is because Mercury’s brightness will decrease as it moves closer to an inferior conjunction with the sun towards the conclusion of the December–January apparition. When planets are in inferior conjunctions, the side that is lighted by the Sun is facing away from Earth. Because of this, they seem like slender, barely-lit crescents.
The narrow crescent phase makes Mercury, a planet only visible above Earth at twilight, difficult to locate. This means that Mercury will be more visible in the days leading up to Christmas than it will be in the days afterwards.
Tiesha loves to share her passion for everything that’s beautiful in this world. Apart from writing on her beauty blog and running her own beauty channel on Youtube, she also enjoys traveling and photography. Tiesha covers various stories on the website.
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