PICTURES OF THE PLANET MERCURY - THE PLANET MERCURY

planet mercury

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt.

pictures

A photograph
A portrait
(picture) a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface; “they showed us the pictures of their wedding”; “a movie is a series of images projected so rapidly that the eye integrates them”
(picture) visualize: imagine; conceive of; see in one’s mind; “I can’t see him on horseback!”; “I can see what will happen”; “I can see a risk in this strategy”
A painting or drawing
(pictural) pictorial: pertaining to or consisting of pictures; “pictorial perspective”; “pictorial records”

of the

biggest consumers of energy in homes and buildings, which are heating

Venus and Mercury

On the morning of 8/14/06 I took this picture, towards east, as I was admiring these two planets. Establishing definitely which ones they were was a challenge, as the astronomy magazines discussing the sky in July were already gone from the shelves of bookstores.

I was hoping the small one was Mercury, so close to the sun. I had never consciously seen it before.
The fat one is decidedly Venus: bright, morning star. Actually, this "Mercury" here has a reddish cast, so it could be Mars. But further research showed the planets indeed to be Mercury and Venus, see my comment below.

There is a story about a famous early astronomer (Galileo?) who, when dying, said he regretted most that he had never seen the planet Mercury. I doubt it is true, but it shows that Mercury is indeed a rare view.

Planet Mercury

A picture of the planet Mercury setting over the Front Range Mountains. Picture taken from downtown Denver, looking west, on February 11, 2006.