Ask Ethan: Why can’t I see Mercury without a telescope?
The most elusive naked-eye planet is downright impossible to view for billions of us on Earth.
“I long ago abandoned the notion of a life without storms, or a world without dry and killing seasons. Life is too complicated, too constantly changing, to be anything but what it is. And I am, by nature, too mercurial to be anything but deeply wary of the grave unnaturalness involved in any attempt to exert too much control over essentially uncontrollable forces.” -Kay Redfield Jamison
Since ancient times, humans have known of five planets — or “wandering stars” — in the sky: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Each of them appears to move against the backdrop of stars from night-to-night, rather than staying in the same fixed position like the other points of light do. But while Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all easily visible to the naked eye, most of us have never even seen Mercury. This is thoroughly dissatisfying to Erik Arneson, who wants to fix that:
I have been sitting on the coast watching the sun set through the thinnest sliver of clear sky on the horizon. I’m struggling with a question: how can one see Mercury with the naked eye? I know it’s possible, but how can I observe it enough to know it’s a “wandering star”? It’s…
