Catching a glimpse of Mercury
It is said that Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) never saw the planet Mercury in his lifetime, though this seems to be a misunderstanding. Until last week, I had never knowingly seen it either
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It's of interest to note that the curious property that Mercury is orbiting faster than it's rotating when it's at perihelion is critical to the stability of its orbit. Otherwise, the steady drag on its rotation would slow it down until one side always faced the sun. During that interval when it's at its closest approach, the drag operates in the other direction. It's just a short part of the orbit, but tidal force is proportional to the cube of distance, so it exactly cancels out the effect over the rest of the orbit.
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http://www.nauticed.org/sailing-blog/james-cook-observation-of-solar-transit-of-mercury/
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