See Mercury at greatest elongation, its farthest from the sun in the evening sky this week

The position of Mercury is shown for the night of July 4 on a simulation of the night sky. Mercury is located close to the western horizon, with the bright star Regulus and Mars positioned to the upper left of the rocky planet.

Mercury reaches its point of greatest eastern elongation on Friday (July 4), presenting an excellent opportunity to spot the rocky planet during its evening apparition in the post-sunset sky.

Astronomers describe Mercury as an "inferior planet", because its orbital path around the sun is much closer than that of Earth. As a result, Mercury never strays far from the sun in our sky and always appears low on the horizon compared to planets like Jupiter and Mars, whose distant orbits allow them to ride high on the line of the ecliptic (the plane of the major planets' path around the sun).