Mercury Sightings - Details for 2026
Mercury has seven elongations in 2026. The initial sighting by Joe Stieber for each of these is tabulated below:
|
Sequence |
Initial Sighting Date (2026) |
Observing Location |
Greatest Elongation (2025) |
|
1 |
Next sighting, #96 |
February 19, eastern (evening) |
|
|
2 |
April 3, western (morning) |
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|
3 |
June 15, eastern (evening) |
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|
4 |
August 2, western (morning) |
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|
5 |
October 12, eastern (evening) |
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|
6 |
November 20, western (morning) |
Elongation #1
● The first sighting of the first elongation for 2025 (the 96th elongation in a row overall) was on xxx xx, 2026, from l.
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The current streak is now 95 elongations in a row, completing fifteen calendar year of spotting Mercury at every elongation, beginning in January 2011. There are six or seven elongations per year. The years 2011, 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2024 each had seven (7) elongations, while 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2025 each had six (6), as does 2026. Those 95 elongations in a 15 year span average 6.33 elongations per year. Click here for sightings in 2025. The purpose of this ongoing effort is not to set some record, especially since I have no idea what sort of record might exist. My note to Gary Seronik that was published in S&T magazine (see the 2022 Mercury page) yielded no responses. Regardless, it demonstrates that locating and seeing Mercury is not nearly as difficult as many suppose. It just takes a little planning and effort, although circumstances make some elongations easy and some difficult.
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Last Update: Saturday, January 10, 2026 at 02:03 PM Eastern Time