Spotting Mercury

[Claire]

Elusive Mercury is now visible in the Western sky after sunset.
Look in line from Venus and Jupiter towards the sunset point and you will see a bright silvery point if you are lucky.
One of the reasons that Mercury is so elusive to us is that it is always seen close to the sun so it is only visible in the periods when it breaks away far enough to be seen in darkness, before dawn and after sunset.
It is changing its position constantly from morning star to evening star with much of the time in the glare of the sun, invisible to us.
So look for a Quicksilver sighting for a week or so, low in the Western sky beginning at dusk. It won't last long as it follows the sun below the horizon.

[Claire]

After staring at the designated spot for a few minutes last evening, I found it! For these first few days it's a short window with the sky being dark enough and Mercury still above the horizon (at least from my vantage point with a bit of a hill in my way).
For now, Mercury is a bit to the left of the ecliptic and it appears to be twinkling (not the usual MO for a planet) because of atmospheric density at the horizon (maybe not the correct phrase).