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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:21 
Transit: 12:14 
Sunset: 17:07
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Mercury

Above the horizon.  Rise: 7:43 | Tran: 12:22 | Set: 17:03
Alt: 21.01°   Az: 159.12°   Direction: South-South-East

Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System, located 0.39 astronomical units from the Sun. It has a diameter of 4,880 kilometers and a mass of 3.3 x 10^23 kilograms, making it only slightly larger than Earth's moon. Mercury is a rocky, terrestrial planet with a heavily cratered surface and a thin atmosphere composed mostly of helium and trace amounts of other gases. The planet has a slow rotation and completes three rotations for every two orbits around the sun, resulting in a day that is longer than its year. Mercury has no moons or rings and is the second hottest planet after Venus, with a maximum temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius) on its daytime side due to its proximity to the sun. Mercury was first observed and studied by ancient civilizations, including the Babylonians and Greeks, and has been explored by multiple spacecraft in recent decades, including NASA's MESSENGER mission.

Mercury is in the constellation of Capricornus, at a distance of 206,752,066.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 21h 49m 51s and the Declination is -15° 13’ 57” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of Mercury is -1.57 (data provided by JPL Horizons).

Finder Charts

Map showing Mercury in Capricornus on February, 11 2025. Field of view: 50x30 degrees
View interactive star map
Sky map showing Mercury in Capricornus on February, 11 2025. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive sky chart

High precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Mercury is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

Mercury
RA: 21h 48m 29s
Dec: -15° 21’ 00”
Deep sky finder chart for Mercury. Field of view: 60x40 arcmins. View in deep sky object tracker

Also check out Where is Mercury?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Mercury in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

21h 49m 51s
-15° 13’ 57”
22h 39m 19s
20h 29m 10s

J2000

21h 48m 29s
-15° 21’ 00”

Additional Information

Capricornus
-1.57

Rise and Set Times

Today's rise, transit and set times of Mercury from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 105.3°
Max altitude: 23.3°
Azimuth: 254.9°
  • Mercury is above the horizon from Greenwich, UK.
  • Right now it is placed in the South-South-East direction at an altitude of 21.01° above the horizon.
  • Given its current magnitude, Mercury is visible to the naked eye, easily even from highly light polluted areas.
  • Go to interactive sky chart

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Distance from Earth

The distance of Mercury from Earth is currently 206,752,066.0 kilometers, equivalent to 1.3820521979 Astronomical Units. Light takes 11m 29.651s to travel from Mercury and arrive to us.

206,752,066.0
1.3820521979
11m 29.651s

The following chart shows the distance of Mercury from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of Mercury from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)

The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth. The value of the distance of Mercury from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest Approach

Between 1 January 1600 and 30 December 2499, the closest approach of Mercury to Earth happens on Mon Jun 6 2416 at a distance of 0.548876 Astronomical Units, or 82,110,662 kilometers:

Mon Jun 6 2416
82,110,662
0.548876

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Light Curve

The following chart is the predicted light curve (visual magnitude as a function of time) of Mercury, according to the most recent ephemerides data. Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour.

Chart of the magnitude of Mercury as a function of time

Physical Data

The following shows the known values of the most important physical parameters of Mercury. Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Physical Parameter Value Relative to Earth
Diameter 4879.4 km 0.3829
Mass 0.330104 x 1024 kg 0.0553
Density 5.427 gr/cm3 0.9843
Escape Velocity 4.25 km/s 0.3798
Sideral Rotation 1,407.5088 hours 58.8068
Absolute Magnitude -0.6
Geometric Albedo 0.106

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Mercury computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.

Date Right AscensionR.A. DeclinationDec. MagnitudeMag Apparent DiameterDiameter Constellation
2025 Feb 04 20h 57m 58s -19° 20’ 07” -1.17 4.8” Capricornus
2025 Feb 05 21h 04m 56s -18° 51’ 50” -1.24 4.8” Capricornus
2025 Feb 06 21h 11m 52s -18° 22’ 04” -1.32 4.8” Capricornus
2025 Feb 07 21h 18m 50s -17° 50’ 51” -1.40 4.8” Capricornus
2025 Feb 08 21h 25m 47s -17° 18’ 11” -1.48 4.8” Capricornus
2025 Feb 09 21h 32m 45s -16° 44’ 02” -1.54 4.8” Capricornus
2025 Feb 10 21h 39m 42s -16° 08’ 27” -1.57 4.8” Capricornus
2025 Feb 11 21h 46m 39s -15° 31’ 27” -1.58 4.9” Capricornus
2025 Feb 12 21h 53m 37s -14° 52’ 59” -1.56 4.9” Capricornus
2025 Feb 13 22h 00m 33s -14° 13’ 07” -1.54 4.9” Aquarius
2025 Feb 14 22h 07m 30s -13° 31’ 54” -1.51 4.9” Aquarius
2025 Feb 15 22h 14m 25s -12° 49’ 18” -1.48 5.0” Aquarius
2025 Feb 16 22h 21m 20s -12° 05’ 24” -1.45 5.0” Aquarius
2025 Feb 17 22h 28m 15s -11° 20’ 14” -1.42 5.0” Aquarius

Additional Resources