Mercury poised for rare 'transit' across sun's face on Monday

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Mercury poised for rare 'transit' across sun's face on Monday



In the past such transits of Mercury have often seen the Stock Market Rally.and there is some egs of evidence that have shown that to occur.

But I did think the Stock Market (Dow Jone) may decline into around  August 6th 2016 at least in the next 3 months..


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Stargazers will have a rare opportunity on Monday to witness Mercury fly directly across the face of the sun, a sight that unfolds once every 10 years or so, as Earth and its smaller neighboring planet come into perfect alignment.

The best vantage points to observe the celestial event, known to astronomers as a transit, are eastern North America, South America, Western Europe and Africa, assuming clouds are not obscuring the sun. In those regions, the entire transit will occur during daylight hours, according to Sky and Telescope magazine.

But Mercury is too small to see without high-powered binoculars or a telescope, and looking directly at the sun, even with sunglasses, could cause permanent eye damage.

Fortunately NASA and astronomy organizations are providing virtual ringside seats for the show by live-streaming images of the transit in its entirety and providing expert commentary.

The tiny planet, slightly larger than Earth's moon, will start off as a small black dot on the edge of the sun at 7:12 a.m. Eastern (1112 GMT). Traveling 30 miles (48 km) a second, Mercury will take 7.5 hours to cross the face of the sun, which is about 864,300 miles (1.39 million km) in diameter, or about 109 times larger than Earth.

"Unlike sunspots, which have irregular shapes and grayish borders, Mercury's silhouette will be black and precisely round," Sky and Telescope said in a press release.

The event will come into view in the western United States after dawn, with the transit already in progress. The show will end at sunset in parts of Europe, Africa and most of Asia.

NASA Television, available on the Internet, will broadcast live video and images from the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory and other telescopes. The show includes informal discussions with NASA scientists, who will answer questions submitted via Twitter using the hashtag #AskNASA.

Other options for armchair astronomers include:

- SkyandTelescope.com plans a live webcast with expert commentary, beginning at 7 a.m. EDT/1100 GMT.

- Slooh.com, which offers live telescope viewing via the Internet, will host a show on its website featuring images of Mercury taken by observatories around the globe.

- Europe's Virtual Telescope, another robotic telescope network, will webcast the transit at www.virtualtelescope.eu

Scientists will take advantage of Mercury's transit for a variety of science projects, including refining techniques to look for planets beyond the solar system.

"When a planet crosses in front of the sun, it causes the sun's brightness to dim. Scientists can measure similar brightness dips from other stars to find planets orbiting them," NASA said.

Mercury's last transit was in 2006 and the planet will pass between the sun and Earth again in 2019. After that, the next opportunity to witness the event will not come until 2032.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mercury-poised-rare-transit-across-suns-face-monday-120722954.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Mercury

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http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2016/2016-transit-mercury/

http://mercurytransit.gsfc.nasa.gov/

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

The transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun on Monday 9 May is the first for the planet since 2006 and the first to be visible from Britain since 2003. Our next occurs in 2019, but we must wait until 2049 for a more favourable one than this.

We might think that the little innermost planet would cross in front of the Sun every 116 days or so, every time it swings around the near side of its orbit of the Sun. However, that orbit is tilted at 7° to that of the Earth, so Mercury usually sweeps unseen above or below the Sun when it is closest, at its so-called inferior conjunction. The next most inclined orbit is that of Venus at 3.4°.

Venus last transited the Sun in 2012 and it is my photograph of that event that forms the backdrop for our plot of Mercury's path across the Sun on this occasion. Obviously, we will not see the relatively large black silhouette of Venus against the Sun this time – we must be patient until 2117, and travel beyond Europe, to view the next Venusian transit.


How can you watch it?
It is vital to repeat and heed the traditional warnings about the dangers of observing the Sun. Never be tempted to look at the Sun directly through any telescope or binoculars unless they are fitted securely with a certified solar filter. To do so will lead to serious eye damage, if not blindness. An alternative is to project the Sun's image through a small telescope on to a shaded white card.

Sadly, the techniques of pinhole projection or using eclipse glasses are useless for this event because of Mercury's small size. With a diameter of 4,879km and a distance of 83 million km, the planet appears only 12 arcsec wide. This is one fifth as wide as was Venus in 2012, and equal in width only to the thickness of the diagonal line on our diagram.

It appears as a round inky dot, darker than any sunspots that happen to be visible at the time – only a few minor ones were apparent on the Sun as I wrote this a few days ago.



Spacewatch: Name a crater on Mercury
Read more
When will it happen?
It will begin at 12.12pm BST and go on for about six hours.

In fact, the effect of parallax means that the times differ by a few seconds across Britain and up to a couple of minutes for elsewhere in the world. The beginning (and end) times mark the instants when the limb of Mercury first (and last) touches the Sun's edge, which it takes just over three minutes to cross.

Transits of Mercury prove of less scientific interest than those of Venus, and this is not just because Venus has a substantial atmosphere which shows up as a bright ring as it traverses the solar limb – Mercury, with the merest trace of an atmosphere, displays no such effect.

It is rather that Venus is so close to us during a transit (43 million km in 2012) that its parallax is more noticeable as viewed across the Earth. If its precise position can be measured from different points on the Earth, for example by timing the moments when the transit begins and ends, then calculations can reveal Venus' true distance and, hence, that of the Sun and the scale of the solar system. In practice, this is easier to say than do. Famously, James Cook's first voyage was to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus in 1769.



https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/may/08/starwatch-transit-mercury-9-may

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Last time I witnessed a planetary Transit cross the Sun , I think was when Venus transited ...

and I was able to use a pair of low powered binoculars (4 to 8 x mag) to see  it as small spot by letting the sun go thru the binocular lens onto a white card...

I tried this again today with Mercury and initially could not see it..

So I found my old telescope when I was a teenager..and tried that.. it was 50 x magnification.. and I managed to see it after trying to focus it correctly...

It was a bit of a struggle to focus it correct to see the image..

Once I then found where about's Mercury was as it was crossing the sun.. I tried the binoculars again and made the image larger by moving them further away from the card.. and I could just about make it out..as a very small dot..

Its been a long transit of over 7 hours..Much longer than I had expected...and now has about 1 hour left..

In the past when I have seen any information about trying to see mercury I am usually told that I can only see it very low  on the horizon... I did not realize that today it was actually very high in the sky thru out the day...crossing the sun as it moved overhead just after mid day (UK time) even..

I am not sure if I have ever seen Mercury or not on the Horizon..
Its usually very low on the Horizion, below Venus...

So Today maybe my 1st time to see it in one way or another.

The Western part of the USA can see the last part of the transit..
Maybe the last two hours or so.

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Here's how to watch Mercury in transit..



At the onset of the event, the planet appears as a tiny black dot at the sun's edge around 7:12 a.m. ET. It'll take about 7.5 hours for Mercury to traverse the face of the sun, as it flies along at the pace of 30 miles per second. The issue, of course, is that you can't really see Mercury's journey (or officially, its transit) across the sun, partially because it's so small, and partially because staring directly at our solar system's great star will likely leave you with permanent eye damage. Luckily, NASA and other organizations have you covered — they'll be live-streaming images of Mercury's transit, and supplementing it with expert commentary.

Sky and Telescope will also be providing live coverage of the event.

Related: Not one, but three potentially habitable planets found in our cosmic backyard

So what's the big deal with this transit? While Mercury moves between the Earth and the sun around three times a year, it rarely passes directly in front of the sun, allowing Earthlings a full view of the phenomenon. And more importantly, scientists watching the transit may be able to learn more about space and the universe at large, including potentially discovering exoplanets.

"It used to be hard to observe transits," Solar and Heliospheric Observatory project scientist Joseph Gurman said in a press release. "If you were in a place that had bad weather, for example, you missed your chance and had to wait for the next one." But now, with the advent of modern technology, it's simpler than ever before for everyone to get their daily dose of science.

"Astronomers get excited when any two things come close to each other in the heavens," said Louis Mayo, program manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "This is a big deal for us."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/want-watch-mercury-transit-162526689.html


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Mercury Crossing The Sun For The First Time In A Decade

Mercury and the sun have begun to dance in a rare astronomical phenomenon you won't want to miss.

In what's known as a planetary transit, the solar system's smallest planet will appear as a tiny black spot slowly crossing the face of our star.

It's the first time the event has occurred in a decade, and those who miss it will have to wait until 2019 for the next opportunity.


The 7.5-hour transit runs from 7:12 a.m. EDT, when Mercury will "start to make a tiny dent in the sun's disk," and until 2:42 p.m. It will be visible in its entirety across the U.S. East Coast, as well as in South America, western Europe and western Africa, according to NASA. Those located in Western U.S. states will be able to view it after sunrise.

It won't be visible to the naked eye. If you don't have your own gear, don't worry. NASA will be streaming the transit live on NASA TV and its Facebook page. You can also watch it live in the video above, courtesy of the robotic telescope company Slooh.

As the planet makes its "leisurely journey across the face of the sun," it will appear 1/158 the size of the sun, according to NASA.

"Astronomers get excited when any two things come close to each other in the heavens," Louis Mayo, program manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. "This is a big deal for us."



NASA
Skywatchers in Western Europe, South America and eastern North America will be able to see the entirety of the transit. The entire 7.5-hour path across the sun will be visible across the Eastern U.S. — with magnification and proper solar filters — while those in the West can observe the transit in progress at sunrise.


Mercury transits the sun roughly 13 or 14 times per century. The last one occurred in 2006, with the next two not until Nov. 11, 2019, and Nov. 13, 2032.

For those observing Monday's event with their own telescope, NASA offers these important safety tips: "Use only a commercially available safe solar filter covering the sky-end of a telescope or both sky-ends of a pair of high power binoculars to observe the transit. Sunglasses and crossed polarizers are not dark enough to save your retina from burns and permanent scarring. Low-power binoculars won't have enough magnification to show tiny Mercury. The transit is NOT visible to the naked eye and cannot be detected through standard solar viewing glasses."


In advance of Mercury's exciting day in the spotlight, NASA released the first global topographic model of the solar system's innermost planet on Friday.

It may be small, but Mercury is taking center stage this week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mercury-transit-2016_us_572d0b43e4b0bc9cb046ec8f?