Look for Mercury in the morning sky as it hits peak distance from the sun on Aug. 19

A picture of a grey, rocky, cratered planet against a black background. The left extreme of the world is bathed in shadow and white spots are visible on the surface where bright material has been thrown out by recent asteroid impacts.

Mercury will be farthest from the sun on Tuesday (Aug. 19), granting early risers a perfect opportunity to spot the fleet-footed world somewhat separated from the glare of our parent star.

Mercury treads such a tight orbit around the sun that it never strays far from the horizon. This makes it one of the trickiest planets to see, especially compared to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, whose distant orbits beyond Earth allow them to appear high in the night sky depending on the time of year.