This month has seen our two inferior planets well placed in the evening sky. Mercury reached greatest elongation east on April 11th and Venus is still climbing away from the sun to reach the same point on June 4th. Elongation is a measure of the angular distance of a planet from the sun. Evening apparitions of Mercury and Venus are always better in spring because the ecliptic is at a steeper angle to the horizon than at other times of the year.
I took this picture eleven days ago on the 12th April (20:05 UT) when we had a brief spell of clear weather at the end of the day. Venus can be seen in the upper left of the image with the distinctive 'Seven Sisters' stars of the Pleiades next to it. Venus at this time was shining at magnitude -4.1 and had a 74% gibbous phase. The planet is so bright that it is causing a bit of flaring in my camera lens. Mercury is low down and just above the horizon at the bottom right of the picture. It was magnitude -0.2 and so was quite a bit fainter.
I also took a more detailed picture (at 20:03 UT) of Venus and the Pleiades together:-
More details about the equipment and the exposures can be found by 'clicking' on either image.
All text and images © Duncan Hale-Sutton 2023
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