If there is one thing that has bothered me over my nearly 60-some years as an amateur astronomer, it is the way that most astronomy books give the impression that the planet Mercury is very difficult, if not almost impossible, to see. It has, in fact, earned this planet the nickname of the "Elusive Planet."
Here, for example, is a passage taken from the book "All About the Planets," by Patricia Lauber (Random House, NY 1960):
