Mercurian Horizon (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)

Images of Mercury's Limb provide information about the shape and topography of Mercury, but they also provide a sense of what it would be like to fly over the Innermost Planet, and to look out of the Spacecraft's window and toward the distant Horizon. See anywhere good to land?

Date acquired: July 24, 2012
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 251598850
Image ID: 2258481
Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: 18,25° South
Center Longitude: 353,70° East
Scale: the bottom of this scene is approximately 150 Km (about 93 miles) across, from left to right
Solar Incidence Angle: 58,6° (meaning that the Sun was about 31,4° above the imaged Local Horizon at the time the picture was taken)
Emission Angle: 80,0°
Sun-Mercury-MESSENGER (or "Phase") Angle: 138,6°