I followed him with the telescope until the sun had set, and soon after I was able to see him very distinctly with the naked eye.

He shone with a peculiar brilliance on the still bright sky; but although perfectly distinct to the view when his place was indicated, he escaped detection by the undirected eye.[12] Mercury does not present any features of great interest in ordinary telescopes; though he usually appears better defined than Venus, at least as the latter is seen on a dark sky.

The phases are pleasingly seen (as shown in Plate 6) with a telescope of moderate power.

For their proper observation, however, the planet must be looked for with the telescope in the manner above indicated, as he always shows a nearly semi-circular disc when he is visible to the naked eye.
We come next to Venus, the most splendid of all the planets to the eye.
In the telescope Venus disappoints the observer, however.

Her intense lustre brings out every defect of the instrument, and especially the chromatic aberration.