Mercury Transit – November 11, 2019
(Veteran’s Day) Free Event
Taylor opens at 7:30 AM
On Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, 2019 there’s a semi-rare and very special event: Mercury transits the sun. The last transit was May 16, 2016, but the next one visible in Kelseyville will be in the summer of 2048. In other words, don’t miss this Mercury transit!
The transit is an early morning event. Taylor will open at 7:30 AM and stay open until after the end of the transit at 10:02 AM Local Time. To enhance your Taylor visit we’ll have coffee and pastries available for purchase, supplied by Katy and Sean from Konocti Coffee. There is no admission charge to Taylor for the Mercury Transit.
A Mercury-solar transit occurs when Mercury and the Earth align exactly on the same side of the sun. Given that Mercury’s year is just 88 earth days, why don’t we see these transits more frequently? The answer is that Mercury’s orbit is inclined 7 degrees to the orbit of earth, so that on most passes between earth and sun Mercury and Earth are not aligned. Transits of Venus are even more rare. The most recent one, observed from Taylor, was in June of 2012; the next transit of Venus is in December, 2117, ninety-eight years from now.
Some Caveats:
-
NEVER look directly at the sun, even for an instant, through binoculars or a telescope — else you will end up like Galileo, blind.
-
The Mercury transit cannot be observed without telescopic magnification of about 50 times – the disk of Mercury is only 1% of the sun’s diameter when observed from Earth. We’ll have three or four safe telescopes available for viewing.
-
Observations through telescopes will begin at Taylor around 7:45 when the sun rises over Mt. Konocti
-
From the 7:30 opening we’ll also have a video display of the transit from equipment operated by our Sept. 28 Window to the Universe Speaker, Prof. Phil Scherrer. And Prof Scherrer and Debra may be there to explain the transit.
-
Nov. 11 is a school holiday. Parents should consider bringing their children to see this rare event. If skies are overcast, the views from the Solar Dynamics Observatory will still be available.
We’ll hope to participate the citizen science project “T. o. M.” This project involves measuring the exacting times when mercury enters and exits the solar disk. An attempt will be made to use these measurements to determine the value of the Astronomical Unit (A.U.), the exact distance between Earth and the Sun. Sir Edmund Halley proposed the transit of Venus could be used to make such a measurement by noting the times of ingress and exit at well-separated locations.
For a write-up of this project, see: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2019/10/10/how-far-away-is-the-sun-next-month-citizen-scientists-will-use-a-transit-of-mercury-to-check/#7860985b5c3