Elusive Mercury. Since 10 June Mercury has been far enough away from the Sun to become visible in the ENE dawn sky about an hour and a half before sunrise. However it has been elusive to see from Mutare due to either cloud or daily bright volcanic sunrise displays near the horizon. I have however managed to capture it at the foot of a steep alignment with Venus, Mars and Jupiter in three images taken between 5.27 & 5.31 am on 13th ,14th and 16th.

Hand-held and tripod-mounted Panasonic-Lumix DMC-ZS40 in sunset and manual exposure modes.

Crop and size reduce three images to produce montage. Minimal application of Star Spikes Pro filter to make planets more clearly visible.