Hopefully you had a chance to witness the transit of Venus on June 5, when the second planet from the sun made a rare crossing of the sun’s face. Despite a cloudy forecast, I felt blessed to be able to see the transit twice, when small breaks in the clouds passed across the sun! I used a sunspotter projection device, invented by an old friend, the late Daniel R. Janosik.

Let me know if you were able to see the Venus transit and what you thought.

What about Mercury? Planet No. 1 orbits the sun even closer than Venus. As seen from Earth (planet No. 3), Mercury also occasionally makes a transit.

Transits of Mercury are seen more frequently, about 13 or 14 times every 100 years. Venus makes transits only about twice in a century, and they occur eight years apart – so the pair of Venus crossings are rare indeed.

Transits of Mercury occur only in May or November. They are so particular as to when we earthlings are so graced to see them because of the configurations of the orbits of Mercury and Earth. For centuries, astronomers have studied the celestial mechanics of our solar system and found that planetary positions, eclipses, transits and other aspects occur with the precision of a fine Swiss clock. They are mathematically predictable.

The last three transits of Mercury occurred in 1999, 2003 and 2006. The next will occur on May 9, 2016.

If you wonder why you never saw the last ones, so do I. I have seen a transit of Mercury only once, in November 1973. I learned of it in advance, and set up my small telescope on the front porch as the sun was rising that chilly morning before I had to get to school. I was able to project the sun’s image safely onto a white cardboard. There it was, the small black dot of Mercury seen in front of the sun. Very slowly, it moved along, past some sunspots. Then clouds came in.

Often when a predicted event is to happen in the sky, clouds will interfere, or perhaps the event is only visible from the other side of the world. Some enthusiasts go to great pains to travel to where the eclipse or transit is visible, and try to go where there is more chance of clear skies.

One has to be patient and not give up. This is great advice for daily living and applies well to searching out the night sky or astronomical events in the day.
You need not wait for 2016 to see Mercury when it transits. The planet zips around the sun every 88 days, looping up into the western twilight after sunset and next looping up in the dawn sky in the east. Mercury never reaches as high as Venus and is bright but not nearly as bright as Venus. Mercury is much more elusive and plays hard to catch. From mid to late June Mercury makes a fine appearance in the evening twilight. Shortly after sunset start looking in the west-northwest. Mercury shines at 0 magnitude, like a bright star, but takes careful looking due to the bright dusk. The planet will be quite low, so you need to avoid hills and trees. Binoculars will help; the planet sets about an hour and a half after the sun.

On June 21, look for the thin crescent moon to the lower left of Mercury; the next night the moon’s crescent will be thicker and higher up.

Now that Venus has crossed the sun, it has reappeared on the other side- and is visible before dawn in the east – northeast.  Early risers (or really late-go-to-bedders) can see Venus in mid-June glowing near the horizon, about a half hour before sunrise. To the upper right is Jupiter, which is also bright. With binoculars, look for the Pleiades star cluster just above Jupiter. On June 15-17, watch as the crescent moon progresses down toward Jupiter and then Venus. The bright red star Aldeberan is close to Venus, but down farther; the star will be hard to detect in the bright dawn.

How about a transit of Earth? From Mars, on veryrare occasions Earth could be seen crossing in front of the sun, if there was anyone there to look. The last Earth transit was in 1984; the next one is in 2084. Future astronauts, get ready!

Last-quarter moon is on June 11.

Send your notes any time to news@neagle.com. Let me know where you read this column.

Keep looking up!
 

Article source: http://www.enterprisenews.com/lifestyle/home_and_garden/x1098658446/Looking-Up-How-about-a-transit-of-Mercury

Hopefully you had a chance to witness the transit of Venus on June 5, when the second planet from the sun made a rare crossing of the sun’s face. Despite a cloudy forecast, I felt blessed to be able to see the transit twice, when small breaks in the clouds passed across the sun! I used a sunspotter projection device, invented by an old friend, the late Daniel R. Janosik.

Let me know if you were able to see the Venus transit and what you thought.

What about Mercury? Planet No. 1 orbits the sun even closer than Venus. As seen from Earth (planet No. 3), Mercury also occasionally makes a transit.

Transits of Mercury are seen more frequently, about 13 or 14 times every 100 years. Venus makes transits only about twice in a century, and they occur eight years apart – so the pair of Venus crossings are rare indeed.

Transits of Mercury occur only in May or November. They are so particular as to when we earthlings are so graced to see them because of the configurations of the orbits of Mercury and Earth. For centuries, astronomers have studied the celestial mechanics of our solar system and found that planetary positions, eclipses, transits and other aspects occur with the precision of a fine Swiss clock. They are mathematically predictable.

The last three transits of Mercury occurred in 1999, 2003 and 2006. The next will occur on May 9, 2016.

If you wonder why you never saw the last ones, so do I. I have seen a transit of Mercury only once, in November 1973. I learned of it in advance, and set up my small telescope on the front porch as the sun was rising that chilly morning before I had to get to school. I was able to project the sun’s image safely onto a white cardboard. There it was, the small black dot of Mercury seen in front of the sun. Very slowly, it moved along, past some sunspots. Then clouds came in.

Often when a predicted event is to happen in the sky, clouds will interfere, or perhaps the event is only visible from the other side of the world. Some enthusiasts go to great pains to travel to where the eclipse or transit is visible, and try to go where there is more chance of clear skies.

One has to be patient and not give up. This is great advice for daily living and applies well to searching out the night sky or astronomical events in the day.
You need not wait for 2016 to see Mercury when it transits. The planet zips around the sun every 88 days, looping up into the western twilight after sunset and next looping up in the dawn sky in the east. Mercury never reaches as high as Venus and is bright but not nearly as bright as Venus. Mercury is much more elusive and plays hard to catch. From mid to late June Mercury makes a fine appearance in the evening twilight. Shortly after sunset start looking in the west-northwest. Mercury shines at 0 magnitude, like a bright star, but takes careful looking due to the bright dusk. The planet will be quite low, so you need to avoid hills and trees. Binoculars will help; the planet sets about an hour and a half after the sun.

On June 21, look for the thin crescent moon to the lower left of Mercury; the next night the moon’s crescent will be thicker and higher up.

Now that Venus has crossed the sun, it has reappeared on the other side- and is visible before dawn in the east – northeast.  Early risers (or really late-go-to-bedders) can see Venus in mid-June glowing near the horizon, about a half hour before sunrise. To the upper right is Jupiter, which is also bright. With binoculars, look for the Pleiades star cluster just above Jupiter. On June 15-17, watch as the crescent moon progresses down toward Jupiter and then Venus. The bright red star Aldeberan is close to Venus, but down farther; the star will be hard to detect in the bright dawn.

How about a transit of Earth? From Mars, on veryrare occasions Earth could be seen crossing in front of the sun, if there was anyone there to look. The last Earth transit was in 1984; the next one is in 2084. Future astronauts, get ready!

Last-quarter moon is on June 11.

Send your notes any time to news@neagle.com. Let me know where you read this column.

Keep looking up!
 

Article source: http://www.galesburg.com/lifestyles/x1098658446/Looking-Up-How-about-a-transit-of-Mercury