Mercury After Sundown

Mercury, the innermost planet in our solar system, reached its greatest elongation Monday night but, of course, it was cloudy around here. Fortunately, however, the planet should be easy to see in the north/northwest about 45 minutes after sundown for the next week to ten days. It will still be twilight, but if you can find the Pleiades, Mercury will be the bright object almost directly south of that open cluster, fairly low on the horizon. In a telescope, the planet appears as a crescent with one third of the planet illuminated.  Hopefully, I can get out one evening and try to get an image of it for my astrophotography adventure.