BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Transit of Mercury *new*

No one alive had seen Venus transit when the 2004 one occurred. And if you missed that and the 2012 transit, there isn't another until 2117. However Mercury also transits the Sun – and these transits happen more often. But what's a transit and what do we learn from it?

Transit of Mercury

On June 3, 2014 NASA's Curiosity rover caught a transit of Mercury that wasn't seen from Earth. Here are five versions of the transit made an hour apart. The two spots you can see are sunspots.

Remember Mercury is very small and Mars is even farther way from it than Earth is. The images are blink comparisons, which means an animation is going back and forth between two positions of Mercury. But if you - like me! - still can't see faint Mercury, look at the fifth image where Mercury is marked with a cross. (Whew! Thanks NASA.)

There is a transit of Mercury coming up very soon - on May 9. Venus is larger than Mercury and closer to us, so you may have had a look at a transit of Venus using eclipse glasses. But you will need access to a telescope with a solar filter in order to see the upcoming Mercury transit.

This map will let you see if the transit may be visible from your area.

Does that mean that the line of transit goes through the central part of the US but it can be seen from East Coast positions?

Angie, to the right of the line - east coast and into central USA - people could see the whole transit. But during the earlier part of the transit the Sun won't yet have risen in the rest of the western USA. When the Sun does rise the transit will already be in progress. The farther west you are, or course, the longer the transit will have been in progress before your sunrise.

Here is Brian Ventrudo's guide to the upcoming Mercury transit.

Here is a time-lapse of the 2003 transit of Mercury. It was taken from a balcony in Belgium over five hours, the above 23 images having been taken 15 minutes apart. Near the center and on the far right, you can see sunspots.

Image Credit & Copyright: Dominique Dierick

Sky & Telescope magazine's guide to the transit of Mercury on Monday, May 9th.

If you don't have a telescope or aren't in a good viewing place, Sky & Telescope will be broadcasting the transit live. You probably won't want to sit and watch the whole thing unless you're very easily entertained, but you can have a look here on the day.

The transit of Mercury happened yesterday. I saw some of it live on the internet, but there isn't all that much to see. A friend began watching in England with a solar telescope, but soon the bright sunny morning clouded over completely. End of observation.

Here is a short (just under 3.5 minutes) video interview with a NASA scientist about what they learn from transits.

The superstar astrophotographer Thierry Legault has done it again. He's succeeded in capturing another amazing event. In this case, he's caught the Sun with Mercury transiting and also the International Space Station. Mercury is a small dot in the lower center of the image.

The space station's transit is brief, and a passing cloud could easily have hidden it. So not only does Legault have to plan carefully to work out where he might see what he hopes to photograph, but needs a fair measure of luck too.