Skygazing: See Four Planets with the Naked Eye
Even the casual observer will be able to pick out four planets from the night sky in the next month.
The next two weeks will afford local skygazers an opportunity to see one of Earth's more elusive neighbors. The planet Mercury, which orbits closest to the Sun and is usually obscured from our view by our star's light, is entering a portion of its orbit that will make it visible low in our western sky during the evenings. Mercury is essentially a ball of iron covered in a fairly thin crust of silicate rock. It's roughly half again the size of our Moon. Look for it near the western horizon between 20 and 50 minutes after sunset, starting tonight. It will be one of the brighter objects in the sky, exceeded only by the Moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter. Mercury will perhaps be easiest to see during the week of Feb. 26. As March …
