A Morning Object As December begins, the little planet is in the morning sky, rising at about 6 o’clock local time. It soon disappears into the morning dusk. The smallest of the primary planets zips around the Sun in only 88 days, so keeping track of its whereabouts is a challenge throughout the year. It is never much more than 26 degrees away from the Sun in our sky, so it will either be a difficult early evening object, or a difficult morning object just before dawn. In nearly sixty years of observing the sky, I have seen Mercury fewer than half a dozen times. Maybe if I tried a little harder, I could catch a glimpse a few times a year!