Mercury Crossing the Sun Wednesday
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nov 6, 4:33 PM EST
*Mercury Crossing the Sun Wednesday*
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An infrequent astronomical sight - tiny Mercury
inching across the surface of the sun - takes place Wednesday afternoon
in North America. But you'll need the right kind of telescope to see it.
Mercury is so tiny - 1/194th the size of the sun - and looking at the
sun is so dangerous to the eyes that viewing must be done with a
properly outfitted telescope or online telescope cameras, experts say.
Still, for many people, it may be the only chance to see the closest
planet to the sun, said Michelle Nichols, a master educator at the Adler
Planetarium in Chicago, one of many places that will hold special
viewings of Mercury's trek. Mercury is usually seen in the early
evening, but it's often obscured by buildings, city lights and trees,
she said.
"You definitely need a telescope to spot this one, a properly filtered
telescope," Nichols said. "You will see a small black dot against the
face of a bright sun."
Several Web sites, including those from mountain peaks in Hawaii, will
be showing Mercury's trek online.
Mercury will travel between the sun and Earth in a way that makes it
appear to cross - in astronomy the word is "transit" - the bottom third
of the sun from left to right.
Mercury's five-hour trek starts at 2:12 p.m. EST. People in Western time
zones of the United States should be able to see the entire trip.
The last "transit of Mercury," as it's called, was in 2003. These events
occur about 13 times a century, with the next one happening in 2016,
according to NASA.
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That's more frequent than the transit of Venus, which happens in pairs,
roughly twice in each century. (The next one is 2012).
Because of the timing of this year's transit of Mercury, it will be
visible in North and South America, Australia and Asia, but not in
Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India, where it will be nighttime.
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On the Net:
Time zone listings for Mercury transit:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/LC/Tran06LC2.html
The path Mercury will take across the sun:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/tran/TM2006sun.GIF
NASA on the transit:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/transit06.html
Transit of Mercury from a Hawaiian summit: