Before Sunrise, March 20, 2021
SkyTools 3 Chart

   

Looking at Sky & Telescope's online Week at a Glance for March 19–27, 2021, under This Week's Planet Roundup, it says that "Mercury has sunk out of sight into the glow of sunrise." Here's a SkyTools chart showing the morning planets on March 20, 2021, at 6:30 am EDT. Mercury is shining at magnitude -0.1 and has a substantial 24° elongation from the Sun, but because the morning ecliptic is at such a shallow angle to the horizon and Mercury has a -2° ecliptic latitude, it is only 2°10′ altitude at the time; nevertheless, it should be observable.

Also note that the sun is very nearly at the intersection of the ecliptic, the celestial equator (0° declination) and 0 hr right ascension. That marks the Vernal Equinox (for the northern hemisphere), which occurs about an hour earlier at 5:37 am EDT. Also note that Jupiter and Saturn are now 10.5° apart compared to their Great Conjunction on December 21, 2020, when they were just 0.1° apart in the evening sky. Finally, note that Venus is close to the Sun and will reach superior conjunction at 2:28 am EDT on March 26, 2021.

 

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