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Swift Mercury Zips Across the Sun's Disc
Skywatchers and Stargazers are preparing for a rare solar system event:
On November 8, 2006, at 2:12 PM EST and 11:12 AM PST, in less than 5 hours, speedy Mercury zips across the Solar Disc. (West of the International Date Line: November 9, 2006)
What is a "Transit of Mercury"? Simply, it is a very special kind of eclipse. Aside from the more common Lunar Eclipse and Solar Eclipse once in a rare while, a planet travels directly between the Earth and the Sun. This is called a Transit and happens only with Mercury, rarely, and Venus, even more rarely. You may recall the June 8, 2004 Transit of Venus (Next one: June 5-6, 2012). Weather permitting, and with proper viewing devices (Always protect your eyes from the Sun! See below or Click here for NASA Safe Viewing Techniques.) we can see Mercury as small black dot moving across the disc of the Sun.
Astronomers and Observatories from Australia to Japan to the Western US will be gearing up for Live Online Webcam Viewing (See links below).
Best Viewing- (Full Daylight) The South Pacific (Western Australia, New Zealand, Pacifica/ Polynesia, Hawaii, Western North America: most of Alaska, and the Western edge of the Continental US, and Mexico, and Antarctica.
Partial Viewing- (Sunrise) China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea to Western Australia. (Sunset) Most of North & South America.
(See Map Links below.)
This is a rare and special event- don't miss it!
Mercury Transit Video - November 8, 2006
The real transit took about 5 1/2 hours
Eye Safety: NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!
Especially with magnifying optical devices: binoculars, telescopes, etc.
Night time sky watching may be done safely with the the naked eye. The brightest natural object will be a full moon.Daytime viewing is quite different, however. The Sun, is a very different case. Never, never, NEVER look directly at the Sun without proper filtering!!! Seriously, you can do major permanent damage to the retina.
Unless you have special solar filters, optical devices such as BINOCULARS AND TELESCOPES WILL NOT PROTECT YOUR EYES. Because of their magnifying effect, viewing the sun through these without proper filtering can cause more damamge than directly gazing at the sun. Most telescopes will utilize a solar projection screen for safe viewing of the sun.
The safest, most widely available "live viewing" is an online webcam, of course. If you must have the "direct experience" please check with the experts so that you will be able to enjoy viewing many celestial phenomena for years to come.
Safe Transit and Eclipse Viewing
How to watch a Solar Transit without burning your eyes out of your head.
Links for Safe eclipse viewing techniques. The main difference is that Mercury is much smaller and further from the Earth. It is nearly impossible to see in daylight without a telescope anyway.
- Solar Eclipse Eye Safety
- NASA's very own info page
- Safe Viewing of Solar Eclipses
- From Mr. Eclipse.com
- How to View an Eclipse
- By Ron Hipscham
With great pictures on how to make viewing safe.
Mercury Transit Links
Links to see the Mercury Transit
Image: NASA/Soho time-lapse image of 2006 Mercury Transit
Graphics, Maps, Live Webcams, Safe Viewing Tips and more!
- Time Lapse Graphic - NASA
- NASA's own press release with a groovy time-lapse graphic of Mercury's Mad Dash across the Sun. Graph shows several US time zones.
- Visibility Map - NASA
- Fresh from NASA- World-Wide Map of who can see what and when. Nice big mape in simple black, white & gray.
- Safe Viewing Techniques
- How to watch the transit without burning your eyes out of your head.
Seriously, you can do major damage to the retina if not very, very careful. Never, NEVER look directly at the Sun without proper filtering!!!
The safest "live viewing" is an online webcam, of course. If you must have the "direct experience" please check with the experts so that you will be able to enjoy viewing many celestial phenomena for years to come. - View: Japan (Sunrise)
- From the Land of the Rising Sun:
Still Photos and Video from Live Webcast at Kochi National College of Technology's Astronomy College in Kochi, Japan. (Click on Video Camera 1 or 2 on the right-hand side of the screen.) - View: Hawaii (Full Daylight View)
- (Quicktime Video)
Live Webcast from Hilo, Hawaii. - View: Kitt Peak, Arizona (Sunset)
- FROM KITT PEAK Observatory in AZ
(RealPlayer Video)
Images from telescopes with audio commentary by Ron Hipschman at the top of each hour. - View: THE WHOLE ENCHILADA- NASA - SOHO & TRACE Sattelites, Kitt Peak & Hilo, Hawaii Observatories
- View- NASA - SOHO & TRACE Sattelites, Kitt Peak & Hilo, Hawaii Observatories
The Transit of Mercury Webcast hosted by the NASA Digital Learning Network. From their home page just choose the Transit of Mercury feature.
NASA Digital Learning Network
Specific Webcast information on the DLN
Webcast Air Time:
Start: 1:30 ET
End: 2:30 ET
Webcast Content:
During the webcast we will feature:
A panel of scientists live from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center with an additional panel of educators and amateur astronomer live from Langley Research Center.
2 NASA Explorer Schools will be connected for live interaction-questions and answers.
A telescope 'safety viewing' demonstration with instructions on how to view the transit using a classroom solarscope.
Live images of the transit from 2 NASA satellites, SOHO and TRACE.
Live ground based images from Kitt Peak and Hawaii!
Note from SOHO:
LASCO C3 will begin seeing Mercury in its field of view beginning on Nov. 5. It will be pretty bright. It disappears from our view on Nov. 12. Incidentally, there will be Venus and Mars in the frames as well and on Nov. 11-12, a 4th planet will appear (4 TOTAL) when Jupiter appears. This is only the 2nd time that SOHO has seen 4 planets at once. The easiest way to view the LASCO images will is with the Sun-Earth Viewer. - Chuck Beutler's Transit Page - Boring Name, Great Resource
- Transit of Venus site with Ab-Fab Graphics! Check it out!
Stargazing & Skywatching - Inside & Outdoors: Star Charts, Navigators & Planetariums
The Night Sky 30°-40° (Large; North Latitude)
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Excalibur® Night Navigator
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Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium
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Space Theater Planetarium
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Scientific Interactive Planetarium with Space Gallery
Amazon Price: $44.99 (as of 11/10/2009)
I Missed It! When's the Next One?
Rare events, indeed.
Mercury- May 09, 2016
Venus- June 5, 2012
- Mercury Transits Catalog for 700 Years
- NASA's 700- year catalog of Transits of Mercury to the Sun. 1601 CE to 2300 CE.
- Transits of Mercury & Venus, 5,000 year Catalog
- Project Pluto Mercury Transits Catalog. -1000 to +4000.
- Image Gallery of Venus Transit
- View amazing photos of the 2004 Venus Transit.
Fun Planetary Stuff from Cafe Press
Mercury Ash Grey T-Shirt
Price: 19.95
Mercury White T-Shirt
Price: 20.95
All the planets except Pluto. Ash Grey T-Shirt
Price: 17.99
Planetary Pool Black T-Shirt
Price: 24.99
News Niblets from NASA
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byVenus Makes a Transit Too...
Venus transit / Tránsito de Venus
Animated sequence of the Venus transit in front of the Sun, made with the pictures we took through the telescope with Mylar filter. -------------------- Antonio Cerezo, Pablo Alexandre, Jesús Merchán, David Marsán (www.aerlig.es) -------------------- www.astrodeneb.org
Runtime: 0:52
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4 Comments:
curated content from YouTube
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Solar Filters for Safe Eclipse and Transit Viewing
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Celestron Solar Filter for Firstscope 60AZ and 60EQ Telescope
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