Transit of Mercury is Tomorrow

[NedL]

For most of the world except Asia, transit of Mercury will be visible tomorrow.
Next one won't be until 2032.

You need special solar filters to observe it, although it would be safe to use eyepiece projection with a pair of binoculars or a small scope ( WITHOUT LOOKING THROUGH IT, you aim the binoculars at the sun, and project the image through the eyepiece onto a piece of paper. It's possible to make an image 4 or 5 or 6 inches across this way which should be good enough to pick out Mercury as a small black disk. Probably the easiest way is to put the paper on a small stand ( like a music stand ) or tape it to a piece or cardboard or wood that you can prop up at an angle, then hold the binoculars in your hand to project the image onto the paper. Once you see the dim image, you can focus it as usual. Don't ever look at the sun though a camera or any kind of scope or binoculars without a solar filter made specifically for that purpose.

Here on the W coast of the US, it will be in progress when the sun rises.
It's supposed to be foggy tomorrow morning where I live, so I'll be heading inland until I get out from under the fog.
I have a small hydrogen-alpha filter solar telescope that I will use, mostly for visual, but I might try to make a couple images ( digital ).

 

[RalphLambrecht]

For most of the world except Asia, transit of Mercury will be visible tomorrow.
Next one won't be until 2032.

You need special solar filters to observe it, although it would be safe to use eyepiece projection with a pair of binoculars or a small scope ( WITHOUT LOOKING THROUGH IT, you aim the binoculars at the sun, and project the image through the eyepiece onto a piece of paper. It's possible to make an image 4 or 5 or 6 inches across this way which should be good enough to pick out Mercury as a small black disk. Probably the easiest way is to put the paper on a small stand ( like a music stand ) or tape it to a piece or cardboard or wood that you can prop up at an angle, then hold the binoculars in your hand to project the image onto the paper. Once you see the dim image, you can focus it as usual. Don't ever look at the sun though a camera or any kind of scope or binoculars without a solar filter made specifically for that purpose.

Here on the W coast of the US, it will be in progress when the sun rises.
It's supposed to be foggy tomorrow morning where I live, so I'll be heading inland until I get out from under the fog.
I have a small hydrogen-alpha filter solar telescope that I will use, mostly for visual, but I might try to make a couple images ( digital ).

I saw the last a couple of years ago from Florida;never seen Mercury before.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Whatever happened to Vulcan? It was reported by astronomers through the middle ages and then it vanished.

 

[NedL]

I saw the last a couple of years ago from Florida;never seen Mercury before.

Me too... saw the transit a couple of years ago and it was the first and only time I've seen Mercury.

Whatever happened to Vulcan? It was reported by astronomers through the middle ages and then it vanished.

This is a famous story from physics! In the mid 19th century, there were anomalies noticed in the orbit of Mercury ( anomalies in the orbit of Neptune and Uranus were what led to first the prediction that pluto existed and finally to discovering it ). For years people tried to find the planet Vulcan between the sun and Mercury, with several false positive observations. Eventually, refinements in the orbital calculations using general relativity explained the small difference between the observed and predicted orbit of Mercury. Einstein's theory of gravity predicts the orbit of Mercury perfectly, and in fact Einstein offered it as a confirmatory test of the theory.

 

[destroya]

at work they are going to put out some of our solar scopes for the employees and volunteers to use to look at the transit. we all get excited when these awesome astronomical events happen. but having to be there around 5am is kind of a drag. but Im sure i wont be here to see the next one.

gotta love being a volunteer at a world famous observatory!

john

 

[NedL]

Yeah, I'm going to get up early too, because I'm expecting to have to drive 1-1/2 hours to get to clear skies.
Not sure if you work in Los Altos, but you have a reasonably good chance ( blue line is forecast sky cover for Los Altos ):


Edit: Oops just realized you're probably at Lick Obsv. at Mt. Hamilton. Forecast for there is not quite as nice, but not terrible... depends if that's fog or not in the early morning!:


Additional info: the 2032 transit won't be visible from the US. Next one visible from the US is in 2049!

 

[reddesert]

There is a way to make an eyepiece projection screen system called a "sun funnel" out of a long cone (a fuel funnel you can buy at auto parts stores), some translucent material, and hose clamps etc. See https://www.nightwise.org/sun-funnel If you do eyepiece projection, be sure that the eyepiece doesn't have any plastic in it, or you can melt things. (I heated a cheap eyepiece to the point of smelling the plastic start to cook while practicing for the total eclipse of 2017.)

Solar filters over binoculars were good for the eclipse (you absolutely must have solar filter material from a reputable supplier, so it requires advance planning). Don't yet know how well binoculars can resolve Mercury.

For the transit of Venus in 2012, I made a six foot long pinhole camera obscura using a long cardboard box from a pair of skis, with a piece of white paper to project the image and the bottom end partly open to view the paper. That worked for Venus, but it probably wouldn't resolve Mercury.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Ned, there is some work that says our Solar System had at least one "hot Jupiter" at one time. Or several "super Earths".

PE

 

[destroya]

Yeah, I'm going to get up early too, because I'm expecting to have to drive 1-1/2 hours to get to clear skies.
Not sure if you work in Los Altos, but you have a reasonably good chance ( blue line is forecast sky cover for Los Altos ):
View attachment 234385

Edit: Oops just realized you're probably at Lick Obsv. at Mt. Hamilton. Forecast for there is not quite as nice, but not terrible... depends if that's fog or not in the early morning!:
View attachment 234386

Additional info: the 2032 transit won't be visible from the US. Next one visible from the US is in 2049!

yeh, i work up at lick. but my alarm didn't go off and i missed! Im sure someone will have some photos to look at when i head up the hill next.

 

[BrianShaw]

Totally overcast here. Hopefully they show it on the evening news!

 

[Dali]

Clear sky here. Transit is ending soon. It was the opportunity to remove the dust from my scope...

 

[destroya]

i have a PDF some of the astronomers made from the transit. can post it if there is any interest

 

[BrianShaw]

i have a PDF some of the astronomers made from the transit. can post it if there is any interest

Interest!

The astronomers where I work set up telescopes but I didn’t bother to visit them because of fog.

 

[NedL]

I had great visual observation early. By the time I was trying to get a picture ( webcam + stacking ) there was a layer of high thin cloud that made seeing not great. The photos are mostly big red ball w/ a black dot... would have been more interesting if the seeing was good enough to get surface detail on the sun. But there wasn't fog here so I was able to enjoy looking at it in my back yard

 

[railwayman3]

Me too... saw the transit a couple of years ago and it was the first and only time I've seen Mercury.


This is a famous story from physics! In the mid 19th century, there were anomalies noticed in the orbit of Mercury ( anomalies in the orbit of Neptune and Uranus were what led to first the prediction that pluto existed and finally to discovering it ). For years people tried to find the planet Vulcan between the sun and Mercury, with several false positive observations. Eventually, refinements in the orbital calculations using general relativity explained the small difference between the observed and predicted orbit of Mercury. Einstein's theory of gravity predicts the orbit of Mercury perfectly, and in fact Einstein offered it as a confirmatory test of the theory.

One of our first junior school science lessons (many years ago) was on "The Planets of the Solar System) and we were taught that Vulcan was right there between Mercury and the Sun. So Einstein was obviously totally wrong with his relativity stuff.

(Observation of The Transit was totally rained-off here, in the middle of the UK, but some good live coverage on t'interweb. )

 

[destroya]

here is what I have

john

 

[Photo Engineer]

Thanks. Very nice.