Well, the horrible weather has continued, which meant we missed a very rare, very close grouping of the planets Venus and Neptune in the evening sky last week, and those of us following the equally remarkable and even rarer dimming of the bright star Betelgeuse - the red one in its top left corner -- have been thwarted too. The clouds have to part some time soon, surely..! If they pull apart this coming weekend we'll be able to see another close encounter of the celestial kind in the evening sky. You'll already have seen Venus blazing away in the west after sunset - it's so bright you just can't miss it - but this weekend it will be joined by the only planet closer to the Sun than itself as Mercury appears down to its lower right around 6pm. Mercury will be bright enough to see with the naked eye, looking like a copper-hued star a lot fainter than Venus. However, you'll only see it if you have a low and flat western horizon; Mercury will be so much lower in the sky than Venus that if you have any buildings, hills or trees on your skyline they will hide it from your view.

Mercury is often described as "elusive" because its low altitude in the sky and relative faintness too. If you can't see it with your naked eye when you look, sweep the sky just above the western horizon with a pair of binoculars and it should pop into view. But only when the Sun has set.