Watching the Mercury Transit
Published on Nov 8, 2006 at 10:44 am.
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Filed under Sun, planets, skywatching.
Don’t forget! Mercury will transit the Sun today. You can read my earlier post on the transit to find out more about it. While not a once in a lifetime opportunity, it is still rare enough that you should go take a look.
However, remember that looking at the Sun is dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. Please, don’t just go look. You need to have a telescope that is either projecting an image of the Sun (and be SURE that no one looks through the telescope while it is doing this), or else you need a telescope with a visual rated solar filter. These should be special purpose filters designed specifically for safely observing the Sun. Homemade filters are to avoided at all cost.Â
You will need a telescope, or something else that can magnify the image, because Mercury is tiny compared with the Sun. It will just be a tiny dot, so pinhole projectors won’t work like with an eclipse.
Many planetaria, observatories, museums, colleges, and amateur astronomy clubs will have public viewing going on for the event (we do!). So, call around and see which one is available. The event will happen from about 1:12pm (Central Time) until 6:10pm (That’s 2:12pm until after sunset Eastern Time). Â
If you can’t get somewhere to see it, or if it is cloudy where you are, then you can watch the whole thing online. There are several places. There will be a live webcast from Kitt Peak National Observatory, complete with commentary. Or, you can watch the NASA webcast. There will be commentary there, too. The Discovery Channel Canada will also have a webcast. And, there are others. So, if can’t see the event in person, you can watch it from the comfort of your computer.  Spaceweather will certainly be posting some photos taken during the event, and they have a cool graphic, too, showing how the transit will look.Â
So, enjoy the transit!
-AstroprofÂ
