If there is one thing that has bothered me the most in more than 50 years of involvement in astronomy outreach, it is the way that most astronomy books give the impression that the planet Mercury is a very challenging, if not almost impossible object to see. It has, in fact, earned this planet the nickname as the "elusive planet."
Here, for example, is a passage taken from the book "The ABC's of Astronomy" by Roy A. Gallant (Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1962): "Mercury is the most difficult planet to observe, has very little to offer, and is difficult to see because it is so small and so close to the sun."
