According to Astronomer expert Dr Beshir Marzouk, Director of Qatar Calendar House, residents of Qatar and other Arabic countries will have a chance to see Mercury, the nearest planet of Sun, today evening; as it will be at greatest elongation with the sun.
Mercury will be at far angular distance from the Sun; where it will be at 27.2 degrees eastern Sun’s centre. Moreover, after greatest elongation the distance between Mercury and Sun will decrease each night. “Qatar residents and Arabic area countries need to be far from places which are exposed to environmental and light pollutions. Mercury will be appear over western horizon of Doha sky for 1 hour and 23 minutes after sunset today; where the sunset will be at 6:21pm, while the time of Mercury set over Doha sky will be at 7:44pm,” said Dr Beshir Marzouk.
The elongation is the angle between the planet and the Sun as seen from Earth, when a planet is at greatest elongation (east or west) it’s at its furthest distance from the Sun.
People can see Moon and three planets (Saturn, Jupiter and Mercury) together over South western horizon of Doha sky, where Moon will be in between Saturn planet and Jupiter planet, where Saturn will be above the Moon while Jupiter will be down the Moon, and Mercury will be near to western horizon of sky.
