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
Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet " Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet "is the second in the series of "Mushroom Planet" books by Eleanor Cameron, and was published in 1956, two years after "The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet". This children's book is set in a beach community in California, as well as on a tiny, habitable moon, "Basidium", in an invisible orbit 50,000 miles from Earth. The "Mushroom Planet," visited by the protagonists David and Chuck, is covered in various types of mushrooms and is populated by little green people. The story opens with Theo Bass, the cousin of