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Mercury Rising at Twilight  -  Like all of my planetary essays, this one of the planet nearest the sun involved multiple blowups and reshoots and, as with the others, I tried to be a bit artistic (knowing that I could never get an image as clear as that of an amateur astronomer's). The end result, I think, is sharp and better than that of the other planets.

Shooting Mercury is difficult simply because the planet is only in the sky for short periods around twilight and dawn. Though bright, it hangs low on the horizon and, being nearer the sun than Earth, drops quickly (imagine chasing someone on the inside of a circular track). It is an interesting subject, however, as the sky around it usually retains some well-lit elements.

As for the planet itself, many astronomers believe that in the distant past its mantle was ripped away by an impact with another celestial body, though some believe that the planet was formed from the same nebulous material the sun itself was forged from. Either way, it has never been suspected of harboring extraterrestrial life (though ice may exist in some of its polar craters) and its appearances in science fiction have been decidely of a utilitarian nature: Rather than being depicted as the host of romantic civilizations, Mercury is always portrayed as a mining colony or something similar.

James Dinnerville  

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