Mercury and Venus stage the closest pairing of two planets for all of 2012. Unfortunately, the twosome sets about one-half hour after the sun at mid-northern latitudes, so they'll be hard to spot right next to the horizon, even with binoculars.

Setting time of the sun, Mercury and Venus in your sky

Mercury shines more brightly than a first-magnitude star, and Venus beams some eight times more brilliantly than Mercury. Even though these worlds are very bright, their luster is severely tarnished by the harsh glow of evening twilight.
It'll be much easier to spot the

planet Saturn and the star Spica in the vicinity of tonight's waxing gibbous moon. From northerly latitudes, this attractive trio of lights appears in the southern sky at nightfall and early evening. The threesome stays out for most of the night, not to set in the west till the wee hours tomorrow.

Mercury and Venus will appear very close together after sunset - that is if you can catch them at all. But they're really not close together in space. Mercury lies on the far side of the sun, and is climbing upward. Venus, on the other hand, is on our side of the sun and falling downward.

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