NavList:

Hello!

Yesterday evening I tryed to have a look at Mercury after the sunset. Unfortunately, there was a cloud band just above the horizon - I could see the Sun going down the horizon, I could see some sky above the cloud strip, above which there were some clouds again. I.e. there were two "windows" - one ON the horizon, ~2° wide in vertical direction, then the cloud strip also ~1.5°~2.5° wide, then another patch of the sky also ~1.5°~2° wide.

Few moments after the Sun got under the horizon - I could see some planet in the upper "window". It was reasonably bright. Since I'm at 60°N - the Sun goes down rather sideways, so I could not tell whether that planet was immediatelly above the Sun or it was to the left of it.

From NA I know that Venus is near the Sun-Earth line, and Mercury is on the east elongation or thereabout. So I want to know which of the two planets it could be I was looking at?

I never saw Mercury before - at least knowing for sure  it was Mercury. How bright/dim is Mercury on max. elongation compared to Venus's dark side?

Warm regards,

Tony