Mercury

Mercury is currently in the constellation of Virgo. The current Right Ascension of Mercury is 14h 12m 36s and the Declination is -15° 18’ 33” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]). The current magnitude of Mercury is 3.99 (JPL).

Summary of key facts about Mercury [tip: you can also create a Quick Access page for this data if you access it frequently and would like to have a simpler view]:

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.

Additional information about Mercury available on TheSkyLive:

Available Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is Mercury?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is Mercury from Earth?)
• Rise and set times (see also When does Mercury rise and set?)
• Brightness (see also How bright is Mercury?)
• Physical data. Detailed information about physical properties of Mercury, such as mass and geometric properties.
• 15 days ephemerides. Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Mercury for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Mercury in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Mercury with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

Higher 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.

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.

Mercury Distance from Earth

The distance of Mercury from Earth is currently 100,498,818 kilometers, equivalent to 0.671793 Astronomical Units. Light takes 5 minutes and 35.2280 seconds to travel from Mercury and arrive to us.

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.

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 of Mercury to Earth

Between January 1900 and January 2100, the closest approach of Mercury to Earth happens on Sun May 31 2015 at a distance of 0.549036 Astronomical Units, or 82,134,610 kilometers:

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

Mercury brightness

The current visual magnitude of Mercury is 3.99.

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.

Mercury rise and set times

Today's Mercury rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change] are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

The rise and set times are defined as the time at which the upper limb of Mercury touches the horizon, considering the effect of the atmospheric refraction. As the atmospheric conditions cannot be modeled precisely the times reported here should be considered correct with an approximation of few minutes.

Mercury 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Mercury computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Mercury in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Apparent DiameterDiameter	Constellation
2020 Oct 15	14h 31m 19s	-18° 19’ 50”	0.74	8.8”	Libra
2020 Oct 16	14h 30m 42s	-18° 11’ 29”	0.94	9.0”	Libra
2020 Oct 17	14h 29m 31s	-17° 59’ 02”	1.18	9.2”	Libra
2020 Oct 18	14h 27m 51s	-17° 42’ 19”	1.48	9.4”	Libra
2020 Oct 19	14h 25m 37s	-17° 21’ 08”	1.83	9.6”	Libra
2020 Oct 20	14h 22m 54s	-16° 55’ 27”	2.26	9.7”	Libra
2020 Oct 21	14h 19m 41s	-16° 25’ 18”	2.77	9.8”	Virgo
2020 Oct 22	14h 16m 03s	-15° 50’ 53”	3.38	9.9”	Virgo
2020 Oct 23	14h 12m 02s	-15° 12’ 38”	4.09	10.0”	Virgo
2020 Oct 24	14h 07m 46s	-14° 31’ 09”	4.92	10.1”	Virgo
2020 Oct 25	14h 03m 21s	-13° 47’ 17”	N.A.	10.1”	Virgo
2020 Oct 26	13h 58m 56s	-13° 02’ 06”	N.A.	10.0”	Virgo
2020 Oct 27	13h 54m 39s	-12° 16’ 45”	N.A.	9.9”	Virgo
2020 Oct 28	13h 50m 38s	-11° 32’ 31”	4.47	9.8”	Virgo