Mercury shines farthest from the sun in the evening sky on Oct. 29

The planet Mercury appears as a point of light in the sunset sky. The glow of the setting sun is visible to the left close to the horizon as three leafless trees reach skyward.

Mercury will reach its greatest eastern elongation on Oct. 29, marking one of the best evenings to see the planet this fall as it appears farthest from the sun's glare in the twilight sky.

As the solar system's innermost planet, Mercury travels an extremely tight orbit around our parent star, with an average separation of under 36 million miles (58 million kilometers). As a result, it never appears far from the sun in Earth's sky and is only ever visible near the horizon in the hours following sunset or preceding dawn, depending on the time of year.