Transit Of Mercury Today
The planet Mercury will appear to move across the face of the sun today in a very rare astronomical event.
But Mercury is also scheduled to make a most unusual - albeit brief - appearance on Nov. 8.
On that day, more than half the world will get to see a rare event - Mercury crossing the face of the Sun at inferior conjunction. Observers throughout the Americas, as well as across eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand will be able to observe all or at least part of this striking celestial phenomenon with small telescopes, as the innermost planet slowly crosses in front of the solar disk. Such a phenomenon is known to astronomers as a transit.
Mercury and Venus are the only major planets we can ever see crossing the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus happen less than twice a century (the next one is scheduled for June 6, 2012). Those of Mercury are some 10 times more frequent. Nonetheless, only 14 transits of Mercury occur during the 21st century - or about seven years apart on average. The November 8 event will be the second Mercury transit in this century, the first having occurred in May 2003.
The entire transit will be an east-to-west passage taking just 4 hours and 58 minutes. The Sun will be above the horizon for the entire transit over western sections of North America, much of the Pacific Ocean (including Hawaii), New Zealand, and a small slice of eastern Australia and adjacent Tasmania.
Take note that since they are all located to the west of the International Date Line, eastern Asia, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand will experience the transit on the calendar date of November 9. For all of these locations, it will be morning and with the exceptions of New Zealand, easternmost Australia and Tasmania, the Sun will rise with Mercury already on its disk.
From the United States, those situated to the east of a line running from roughly Bonners Ferry, Idaho to El Paso, Texas will be able to see the beginning stages of the transit, as Mercury moves onto the lower left part of the Sun.
Mercury's transit will begin within a minute of 19:12 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) at every site from which it is visible. That translates to 2:12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time or 11:12 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
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WARNING: Transits of Mercury are not visible with the unaided eye. A telescope must be used, magnifying at least 30 to 100 power to bring out the "dark dot" of Mercury in silhouette against the Sun's disk. To see Mercury as an actual disk will be a challenge because its angular diameter is small, only 10 seconds of arc at this inferior conjunction. As Mercury moves across the face of the Sun, it will appear absolutely jet black in contrast to the lighter gray of any sunspots that may also be present on the solar disk.
So, please refrain from staring into the sun. We'd kind of like to keep our readers. Here are some places that will have webcasts:
By crosspatch, Wednesday, 8 November , 2006 @ 12:02 pm
Off topic, you may even delete this comment …
Rumsfeld has announced his resignation. My guess he decided to do that some time ago and waited until after the election to announce it.
By Scott W. Somerville, Wednesday, 8 November , 2006 @ 12:33 pm
Rats! It’s raining here in Maryland.
By Gaius, Wednesday, 8 November , 2006 @ 12:38 pm
You can watch it on the web safely
By BubbaB, Wednesday, 8 November , 2006 @ 2:16 pm
ARRGHH!! MY EYES!!!
By BubbaB, Wednesday, 8 November , 2006 @ 2:17 pm
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
Nope, doesn’t say nothing about a transit of Mercury…
By Gaius, Wednesday, 8 November , 2006 @ 2:18 pm
BubbaB, we can’t spare any readers!