Oslo, Norway
Mercury tonight
Not well placed in tonight's sky from Oslo, Norway.
Computed for your location ·
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and never wanders far from it in our sky. You can only catch it briefly, low above the horizon, during morning or evening twilight — and only around a few weeks each year.
Tonight's altitude
Where Mercury sits across the night
What it is
Mercury in one paragraph
A cratered, airless world barely larger than Earth's Moon. A day on Mercury (sunrise to sunrise) lasts 176 Earth days; a year is only 88. Its surface swings from 430 °C (806 °F) on the sunlit side to −180 °C (−292 °F) in shadow.
Naked eye & binoculars
How to actually see it
The trick is timing. Watch for evenings or mornings around Mercury's 'greatest elongation' — when it's furthest from the Sun in our sky. Find an unobstructed low horizon (a hill, a beach, an open field). Start scanning about 30 minutes after sunset (or before sunrise), low and along the Sun's path.
Through a telescope
What you'll actually see in the eyepiece
Binoculars help you find it in the twilight glow. A small telescope shows a phase (like a tiny crescent Moon), but atmospheric turbulence near the horizon makes it hard to see much surface detail from Earth.
Key facts
Mercury at a glance
- Distance from Sun
- 58 million km
- Diameter
- 4,880 km
- Year
- 88 Earth days
- Moons
- 0