My very first view of Mercury was thanks in large part to my friend, Jaro Kavalier, who encouraged me to use a brighter nearby object (Altair at that time) to guide me to the planet in the short pre-dawn opportunity to observe it. This incident is a valuable reminder to me of the importance of sharing one’s knowledge of the beauty and richness of the natural world so that others can gain similar inspiration. I was fortunate to be able to use a crescent moon as my guide for locating Mercury in this 06:53, December 5, 2018 photo looking east over Mount Baker from Port Coquitlam, BC. But since Mercury was merely a tiny dot below the moon, and the moon was close to new and with the earthshine captured reasonably well, I decided to use it for that category instead. Capture details: Canon 5D camera on a fixed mount, 24-105 mm zoom lens set to 105 mm, aperture 5.6, exposure time 0.5 sec, ISO 800.