{"id":238996,"date":"2025-12-18T09:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/238996\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T09:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:56:12","slug":"the-sky-today-on-thursday-december-18-mercury-on-the-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/238996\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on Thursday, December 18: Mercury on the move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tChallenge yourself to spot a 2-percent-lit crescent Moon as Mercury shows off its quick motion against the background stars before sunrise.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"434\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/12182025.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBy December 18, Mercury is in Ophiuchus and the Moon is a slim, 2-percent-lit sliver to Mercury\u2019s lower right. Credit: Stellarium\/USGS\/Celestia\/Clementine\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The article details a series of celestial observations scheduled for December 17th, primarily involving the Moon, Mercury, and the star Antares.<\/li>\n<li>Specific appulses include the Moon passing 6\u00b0 south of Mercury at 7 A.M. EST and 0.4\u00b0 south of Antares at 8 A.M. EST, followed by Mercury passing 6\u00b0 north of Antares at 4 P.M. EST.<\/li>\n<li>The Moon will present as a slim, 2 percent lit waning crescent, rising approximately 6:20 A.M. local time, and is recommended for observation with binoculars or a telescope to better discern its form and earthshine.<\/li>\n<li>Mercury, with a magnitude of \u20130.5 and 84 percent illumination, will be situated nearly 7\u00b0 to the Moon\u2019s upper left within the southwestern region of Ophiuchus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-this-week-from-december-12-to-19-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>December 17: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-wednesday-december-17-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Moon meets Mercury<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Moon passes 6\u00b0 south of Mercury at 7 A.M. EST, then passes 0.4\u00b0 south of Antares at 8 A.M. EST. Later today, Mercury passes 6\u00b0 north of Antares at 4 P.M. EST.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mercury rises this morning around 6 A.M. local time, with the Moon following later around 6:20 A.M., just after Scorpius\u2019 heart, the red-hued star Antares.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Moon is now just 2 percent lit \u2014 potentially a challenge to view with the naked eye, but its slim crescent should look lovely though binoculars or a telescope. Look for earthshine lighting up the darkened regions of the nearside, as sunlight bounces off Earth and illuminates the portions of the Moon already experiencing night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Magnitude \u20130.5 Mercury is now nearly 7\u00b0 to the Moon\u2019s upper left, in far southwestern Ophiuchus. The planet is now 84 percent lit; a small change from yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sunrise:<\/strong>\u00a07:17 A.M.<br \/><strong>Sunset:<\/strong>\u00a04:37 P.M.<br \/><strong>Moonrise:<\/strong>\u00a06:21 A.M.<br \/><strong>Moonset:<\/strong>\u00a03:14 P.M.\u00a0<br \/><strong>Moon Phase:<\/strong>\u00a0Waning crescent (1%)<br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Challenge yourself to spot a 2-percent-lit crescent Moon as Mercury shows off its quick&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[18,19,17,2209,133,75779],"class_list":{"0":"post-238996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-observing","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sky-tonight"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115739976662673088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}