Celestial Neighbors

I spent a clear, cold evening in early March with a friend and his big telescope out in the scablands of Eastern Washington near Sprague. Just after sunset, you could see the crescent moon with Venus above and to the right (which was also in its crescent phase, although you needed his telescope to see that). One third of the way up from the ground to Venus, that small dot of light is the planet Mercury racing around the sun.