Mercury (planet) at a steep angle. Mercury is 10° above the horizon when the planet appears directly above the Sun (i.e. its orbit appears vertical) and is at maximum elongation from the Sun (28°) and also when the Sun is 18° below the horizon, so the sky is just completely dark. This angle is the maximum altitude at which Mercury is visible in a completely dark sky. At middle latitudes, Mercury is more often and easily visible from the Southern Hemisphere than from the Northern. This is because Mercury's maximum western elongation occurs only during early autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, whereas
Nearest neighbour distribution Nearest neighbour distribution In probability and statistics, a nearest neighbor function, nearest neighbor distance distribution, nearest-neighbor distribution function or nearest neighbor distribution is a mathematical function that is defined in relation to mathematical objects known as point processes, which are often used as mathematical models of physical phenomena representable as randomly positioned points in time, space or both. More specifically, nearest neighbor functions are defined with respect to some point in the point process as being the probability distribution of the distance from this point to its nearest neighboring point in the same point process, hence they are used to