Mercury moves quickly in its orbit around the Sun, and this can be seen in its day-to-day movement in our sky. In the 6 days between this image and the previous one, Mercury has moved from a position about 3 degrees below Jupiter to about 5-1/2 degrees above it.

Image details:  1/5 second exposure at ISO 1600, taken with a Canon 400D camera at a focal length of 55 mm.

March 19, 2011