The next Mercury transit is fast approaching. Mercury will transit (or pass in front of the Sun) as seen from Earth on Monday, November 11, 2019. The last time this happened was three years ago in 2016. If you miss it in 2019 you’ll have to wait 13 years until the next transit in 2032.
Mercury Transit 2016
Mercury is very small compared to the Sun. The small speck to the right of center in the image above is Mercury. The other speck to the left is a sunspot. You could line up 194 Mercuries across the face of the Sun. Since it’s small you will need a telescope and an approved solar filter in order to view this event. Warning: NEVER look at the Sun without proper eye protection or you will permanently damage your eyes. NEVER look through a telescope at the Sun unless you are certain you have a “visual grade solar filter” on the telescope.
Mercury Transit 2016 started with an unfavorable weather forecast for the DFW area but as the day and the transit progressed the clouds began to break. The transit was in progress at sunrise here locally. I’ve uploaded the better images I took of the transit most of which were from just before maximum transit (9:58 a.m. CDT) until 3rd and 4th contact (or egress) I used my normal setup for these events a Meade 90mm (3.5″) ETX maksutov-cassegrain telescope with a Nikon D60 digital camera working at prime focus and a solar filter. These images are unedited and unprocessed.
It’s been a decade since the planet Mercury passed in front of the Sun as seen from Earth. These transits happen about 13 times a century and November 8, 2006 was the last time it happened. I took the image below with a 90 mm Meade ETX telescope. Mercury is the small dot. The larger dot to the right is a giant sunspot. You can see more of my transit images on my website.
Mercury Transit 11/8/06 Enhanced
This year on May 9, 2016 Mercury will once again slowly glide across the face of the Sun and it’ll make for a great observing opportunity for those in the U.S.A. The transit will have already begun (6:12 a.m. CDT) for those in western parts of North America. So when the Sun rises on May 9, 2016 at 6:34 a.m. CDT Mercury will already be working its way across the Sun. The greatest transit time for the DFW area will come around 9:58 a.m. CDT. Greatest transit is the instant when Mercury passes closest to the Sun’s center. Mercury should begin to move off the face of the Sun at about 1:38 p.m. CDT. Continue reading Mercury Transit 2016→
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