Jupiter and Mercury

This is a fun conjunction of planets that occurred last night.  First - I don't see Mercury often.  It tightly orbits the sun so, at best, is only visible before sunrise or after sunset.  Second - This is a pairing of the largest planet (Jupiter on the left) and the smallest (Mercury below).  Third - They appear near each other (2 degrees in this pic) but it's just an optical illusion.  Mercury is 100 million miles away while Jupiter is over 5 times that.  Fortunately, we can see conjunctions between planets like this fairly often because they all orbit in the same flat plane around the sun.  You can see this pair for the rest of the week.  Look for them on the western horizon just after sunset.  This is one of the few times where a telescope won't enhance your view since they are too close to the horizon and will just look blurry.