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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 4:59 
Transit: 12:56 
Sunset: 20:54
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Mercury

Above the horizon.  Rise: 4:46 | Tran: 12:19 | Set: 19:55
Alt: 33.02°   Az: 256.55°   Direction: West-South-West

Mercury is in the constellation of Aries, at a distance of 192,975,181.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 03h 22m 23s and the Declination is +17° 44’ 56” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of Mercury is -1.40. Check out tonight's visibility information for Mercury.

Finder Charts

Map showing Mercury in Aries on May, 22 2025. Field of view: 50x30 degrees
View interactive star map
Sky map showing Mercury in Aries on May, 22 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: 03h 20m 57s
Dec: +17° 39’ 32”
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

03h 22m 23s
+17° 44’ 56”
03h 55m 36s
07h 17m 59s

J2000

03h 20m 57s
+17° 39’ 32”

Additional Information

Aries
-1.40

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: 72.6°
Max altitude: 56.2°
Azimuth: 287.9°
  • Mercury is above the horizon from Greenwich, UK.
  • Right now it is placed in the West-South-West direction at an altitude of 33.02° above the horizon.
  • Given its current magnitude, Mercury is visible to the naked eye, 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 192,975,181.0 kilometers, equivalent to 1.2899594098 Astronomical Units. Light takes 10m 43.696s to travel from Mercury and arrive to us.

192,975,181.0
1.2899594098
10m 43.696s

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 May 15 02h 24m 37s +12° 19’ 40” -0.70 5.6” Aries
2025 May 16 02h 31m 37s +13° 02’ 21” -0.79 5.5” Aries
2025 May 17 02h 38m 47s +13° 45’ 14” -0.87 5.5” Aries
2025 May 18 02h 46m 07s +14° 28’ 13” -0.96 5.4” Aries
2025 May 19 02h 53m 38s +15° 11’ 10” -1.05 5.4” Aries
2025 May 20 03h 01m 18s +15° 53’ 59” -1.14 5.3” Aries
2025 May 21 03h 09m 10s +16° 36’ 28” -1.24 5.3” Aries
2025 May 22 03h 17m 11s +17° 18’ 31” -1.34 5.2” Aries
2025 May 23 03h 25m 24s +17° 59’ 56” -1.44 5.2” Aries
2025 May 24 03h 33m 47s +18° 40’ 34” -1.55 5.2” Taurus
2025 May 25 03h 42m 20s +19° 20’ 11” -1.66 5.1” Taurus
2025 May 26 03h 51m 03s +19° 58’ 38” -1.79 5.1” Taurus
2025 May 27 03h 59m 54s +20° 35’ 42” -1.93 5.1” Taurus
2025 May 28 04h 08m 55s +21° 11’ 09” -2.09 5.1” Taurus

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