APOD 4.1 Venus and Mercury in the West

All around the world, Venus and Mercury are very close together in the western sky. These two planets have just passed conjunction and are starting to slowly grow apart. The two planets will remain almost as close together as they were at conjunction for a few days, before quickly separating as Mercury plummets to the horizon. This conjunction is ideal for observations of Mercury. Mercury is often hard to identify because it is very faint. Often, the Sun's glare prevents us from seeing the closest planet to the Sun. Even when not obstructed by the Sun, Mercury is faint and hard to identify if you do not look at the sky often enough. However, with Venus' close approach, it is very easy to tell which object Mercury is. Venus is by far the brightest object in the night sky and is very easy to identify low in the west. At our latitude, the best viewing is about 30 minutes after sunset. At this point in time, both Venus and Mercury are fairly bright and easily visible.