Bravo! GregDiesel Landscape Photography caught the planet Mercury before sunrise on February 27, 2014. Mercury will remain in the morning sky until late April. It’ll be a most wonderful morning apparition of Mercury for the Southern Hemisphere, though less good one for the Northern Hemisphere. And it’s just now beginning.

Mercury will be farthest from the sun – at greatest elongation – on March 14, 2014. Read more about Mercury farthest from the sun.

View larger. | GregDiesel Landscape Photography captured this photo of the moon and Mercury (far left of photo) on February 27. It was the only Mercury photo we saw that day, and what a beauty. Visit GregDiesel Landscape Photography’s online gallery on Facebook.

Bottom line: In late February 2014, the planet Mercury is just returning to the eastern predawn sky for a long apparition that’ll run through April. GregDiesel Landscape Photography captured this image of the planet near the moon on Feburary 27.

Bruce McClure

Bruce McClure has served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages since 2004. He's a sundial aficionado, whose love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and sailing in the North Atlantic, where he earned his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. He also writes and hosts public astronomy programs and planetarium programs in and around his home in upstate New York.