Mercury is our only evening planet. You may be able to see it in the evenings ahead if you are looking to the west and you have an unobstructed view of the horizon. Mercury is the only bright object so close to the horizon.

Look after sunset when twilight starts and later. Mercury is low and in the nights ahead the planet will get higher and higher.

Mercury reaches its farthest apparent distance from the Sun, great elongation, at the end of the month. There is no reason why you can’t start looking now. On Friday, April 29, Mercury will be right next to the familiar star cluster Pleiades.

Don’t wait until then. Enjoy the view now. Look for Pleiades, in the western sky. Binoculars will help. In the nights ahead you’ll see Mercury fairly far below and underneath, inching its way higher in the west. It will appear to touch the star cluster at the end of the month.