Astronomers Without Borders

🌟 Tonight, June 24-26: Mercury’s Last Twilight Challenge

Can you spot tiny Mercury before it disappears into the sunset glow?

After sunset tonight, look very low toward the western horizon for bright Jupiter. Then use Jupiter as your guide to hunt for much fainter Mercury, sitting a little under 4° away.

This is not an easy one, Mercury has faded to about magnitude +2.2, so it may be tough to see with just your eyes. But that’s what makes it a fun skywatching challenge!

🔭 What to look for:
✅Start looking about 30–45 minutes after sunset
✅Face west, with a clear, flat horizon
✅Find bright Jupiter first
✅Then scan nearby for faint Mercury
✅Binoculars will help, but only use them after the Sun is fully below the horizon

😲Mercury is the innermost planet, racing around the Sun every 88 days. Because it hugs the Sun in our sky, we only catch it briefly in twilight before it vanishes again.

📌Your mission tonight:
Can you spot both Jupiter and Mercury before Mercury disappears below the horizon?

👇Comment with your location and tell me:
Found Mercury! or Jupiter only!

🔁And share this with someone who likes a real sky challenge.

⭐️I post new skywatching missions like this daily. Follow to never miss a clear sky alert! ⭐️

📷SkySafari National Geographic Books

M27: The Dumbbell Nebula (APOD: 2026 Jun 22)
Image Credit & Copyright: Francesco Antonucci
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260622.html

Explanation: Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the brightest planetary nebulas on the sky and visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula). It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors enhanced by red for hydrogen and blue for oxygen. We now know that in about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer gases into a planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will become an X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even today, many things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including how their intricate shapes are created.

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=260622