Greatest elongations of Mercury and Venus

2000 to 2015

calculated by Mercury Chaser's Calculator and Venus Elongation Explorer

Compare also with my applets:
Planets, Planetary Motion

Eastern elongations (evening apparition) negative,
western elongations (morning apparition) positive:

From 2000 to 2015 western elongations range between 17.9° and 27.8° (mean 22.6°),
eastern elongations are between -18.1° and -27.4° (mean -22.6°).

 

The difference of elongations is due to the large excentricity of Mercury's orbit (e=0.206), exaggerated in the figure above. Using the value of the major semiaxis for Mercury (a=0.387 AU) and for the Earth (1 AU), the elongation angles can easily be computed:

sin α = a*(1-e)/(1 AU) = 0.307, α = 17.9°

sin β = a*(1+e)/(1 AU)= 0.467, β = 27.8°

Greatest elongations>=26.9° until 2015:

2006 Apr 08
Morning
27.8°W
+0.6
2007 Mar 22
Morning
27.7°W
+0.5
2008 Mar 03
Morning
27.1°W
+0.3
2008 Sep 11
Evening
26.9°E
+0.4
2009 Aug 24
Evening
27.4°E
+0.5
2010 Aug 07
Evening
27.4°E
+0.6
2012 Apr 18
Morning
27.5°W
+0.6
2013 Mar 31
Morning
27.8°W
+0.5
2014 Mar 14
Morning
27.6°W
+0.4
2015 Sep 04
Evening
27.1°E
+0.5

  Western elongations range between 45.8° and 47.0°,
eastern elongations range between -45.4° and -47.1°.

 

Overlay of Mercury and Venus:

J. Giesen

2006, Feb 19