Mercury snuggles up to the crescent moon tonight

Mercury will be in conjunction with the crescent moon on Sept. 8, 2021, at 4:18 p.m. EDT (2018 GMT). The pair will be visible above the western horizon after sunset. (Image credit: SkySafari app)

The tiny planet Mercury will make a close approach to the crescent moon in the evening sky tonight (Sept. 8), but the pair may be difficult to observe. 

Mercury and the moon will be just above the western horizon at sunset, which means you won't have much time to observe Mercury before it, too, sinks below the horizon. Although the planet will be up in the sky before sunset, it can be difficult and dangerous to see it in the sun's bright glare

In New York City, for example, the sun sets at 7:16 p.m. EDT tonight, less than one hour before Mercury sets at 8:06 p.m. local time, according to Time and Date. The day-old waxing crescent moon — which just reached new phase on Monday (Sept. 6) — sets shortly after Mercury, at 8:29 p.m. 

Related: Best night sky events of September 2021 (stargazing maps)  

Mercury and the moon reached a conjunction, meaning they shared the same celestial longitude while making a close approach, at 4:18 p.m. EDT (2018 GMT) today, according to the skywatching site In-The-Sky.org. The pair will remain close together in the sky all evening, but you may need binoculars or a telescope to see Mercury. 

Because Mercury is so close to the horizon after sunset, it will be difficult or impossible to observe from northern latitudes. According to NASA, the planet should be observable at mid-northern latitudes and farther south. The closer you are to the equator, the better your view will be, as the planet will remain in the sky longer after sunset. In Miami, for example, the sun sets today at 7:32 p.m. EDT, while Mercury sets at 8:40 p.m. local time.

If you aren't able to spot Mercury tonight, you may have better luck looking for Venus, which is shining brightly to the south (left) of Mercury and is higher up in the sky. Venus sets in New York City at 8:48 p.m. local time but will be above the horizon in Miami until 9:30 p.m. local time. 

To find out exactly what time the planets will rise and set from your location, check out this night sky calculator from Time and Date. 

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Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.