Transit of Mercury November 8th

For those of you living in the western hemisphere get ready for the transit of Mercury this week. Given this isn't as exciting as a solar or lunar eclipse, but since there are only 2 other planets between the sun and earth, this is of course a rare event. The site listed below has an article on how to best enjoy the transit viewing. (Without going blind )

Transit of Mercury
On November 8, 2006, Mercury will slowly slide across the face of the sun during an event known as a transit. A transit of Mercury is relatively rare—there are only about a dozen in a century.

Thanks for the info... I'll keep an eye on the sky =)

Yes, this is a rare event. For anyone who is interested, Slooh.com is going to have a free online viewing of the transition with David Levy as the host. They are supposed to update information on the site and explain how you can do it.

Slooh is an online observatory in the Canary Islands, but for this event they will be hooking up David's telescope in Tucson AZ and is setup for solar viewing. They have Slooh radio piped in and you can listen to David's lecture. The event is going to start at 2:00 EST, and last five hours.

I know I will check it out.

Edit: I forgot to mention, you must have a high speed Internet connection or you won't be accepted.







[edit on 11/6/2006 by Hal9000]

Doesnt Mercury signify "trouble"???

Have Mercy! How much more trouble could we stand???

Here is an article on how you can view the transition using a telescope. Just don't look at the sun through the eyepiece. It will blind you. The article explains how to shine the sunlight onto a piece of paper like they do for eclipses.

www.space.com...

Good luck.

Is Mercury the planet of "trouble"???

Can somebody please answer me that?

Originally posted by dgtempe
Is Mercury the planet of "trouble"???

Not that I know of. Mercury was named after The God of Commerce and Speed. If there is some other significance, I am not aware.

Thank you. For some reason i relate it with trouble.

Never mind- just having a platinum blonde moment here.

isn't it like water/poseidon?

Just thought I would remind everyone. The transit starts at 2:00 PM EST.