Skygazers prepare for rare Mercury sighting

Mercury will be making a rare appearance!

Mercury has a short year of 88 days to travel around the sun but is not in alignment very often for us to catch a glimpse. The last Mercury orbit was 10 years ago, and the next will be in 2019.

I thought this would be a nice refresher from politics.

www.yahoo.com...

It's Trump's fault

Or is it Hillary's?

In all seriousness though, thanks for the heads up, a fairly rare occurrence, let's hope for clear skies.

a reply to: Bluntone22


May 9, 2016. So Monday.

On Monday morning, May 9th, Mercury will pass directly between Earth and the sun, producing a rare transit visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa and much of Asia. According to NASA, this is what the tiny black disk of the innermost planet will look like as it crosses the solar disk:

In the USA, the transit begins around 7:15 am eastern time. This means it begins before sunrise on the west coast, but that's no problem. The transit lasts for more than 7 hours, so Mercury will still be gliding across the solar disk when the sun comes up over places like California and Alaska. Everyone in the USA can experience the event.

Source: Spaceweather.com link

a reply to: Bluntone22

I would find this really cool and fun to do myself if I had a telescope (near future purchase.) Videos of such transits aren't all that exciting, as it's essentially a black dot on a bright white circle, but the idea of actually "capturing" it oneself seems like good dorky fun to me

Mercury itself has always amazed me in it's ability to not just get sucked into the sun. It seems like it would be the equivalent of a beach ball floating in the upper atmosphere of Earth and yet not falling due to gravity. Maybe now is a good time for me to finally read up on why that is.

a reply to: dogstar23


I agree.
Everybody needs at least a small telescope but be sure to use a filter for the sun.

You can see several of Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings with an inexpensive scope. Notice I said inexpensive not cheap.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: dogstar23


I agree.
Everybody needs at least a small telescope but be sure to use a filter for the sun.

You can see several of Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings with an inexpensive scope. Notice I said inexpensive not cheap.

This. Seriously, this!!

Good luck my "little explorers.

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: dogstar23


I agree.
Everybody needs at least a small telescope but be sure to use a filter for the sun.

You can see several of Jupiter's moons and Saturn's rings with an inexpensive scope. Notice I said inexpensive not cheap.

This. Seriously, this!!

Good luck my "little explorers.

Even a good pair of binoculars (for stargazing, not for the Sun!) works wonders. Through binoculars, you can see a crescent of Venus, Jupiter's moons, the Andromeda galaxy, the Orion nebula, and a whole bunch of star clusters.