This month’s planets

Mercury is our Planet of the Month this issue because it won’t appear as bright in the evening sky again for the rest of the year. Mercury is considered by many astronomy enthusiasts and professional planetary astronomers to be a ‘forgotten planet’, one of the worlds which has been ignored in favour of more exciting and picturesque worlds such as mighty Jupiter, ringed Saturn and the Red Planet, Mars. They may have a point; it is a fascinating world in its own right. One